https://wiki.aurorastation.org/api.php?action=feedcontributions&feedformat=atom&user=The+StrykerAurora Information Uplink - User contributions [en]2026-04-11T12:51:53ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.45.3https://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=Sandbox2:The_Stryker&diff=38306Sandbox2:The Stryker2025-10-30T16:28:49Z<p>The Stryker: </p>
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<div>{{Navbox Lore}}<br />
{{Template:Navbox Corporations}}<br />
{{Infobox Corporation<br />
|headercolor = #920a0a <!--Can be left blank for grey header--><br />
|textcolor = white <!--Can be left blank for black text--><br />
|name = Zavodskoi Interstellar<br />
|logo = Zavodskoi_Interestellar<br />
|headquarters = Nova Luxembourg, [[Moroz]], [[Empire of Dominia]]<br />
|slogan = Even one matters on the battlefield.<br />
|languages = Tradeband, Tau Ceti Basic, Sol Common<br />
|ceo = [[Notable Humans#Lyudmila Zavodskoi|Lyudmila Zavodskoi]]<br />
|colors = <span style="color:#363c43">Black (#363c43),</span> <span style="color:#920a0a">red (#920a0a),</span> <span style="color:#7a6347">brown (#7a6347)</span><br />
|founded = 2259 (as Necropolis Industries)<br />
2462 (as Zavodskoi Interstellar)<br />
|founder = Yefim Dementyev (as Necropolis Industries)<br />
Lyudmila Zavodskoi (as Zavodskoi Interstellar)<br />
|regions =<br />
<br><br />
* [[Sol Alliance]]<br />
* [[Empire of Dominia]]<br />
* [[Republic of Biesel]]<br />
* [[Coalition of Colonies]]<br />
* [[Republic of Elyra]]<br />
|}}<br />
<br />
'''Zavodskoi Interstellar''', formerly Necropolis Industries, is the weapon’s development and manufacturing megacorporation of the Orion Spur. Originally founded in 2259 as a mishmash of corporations, the Zavodskoi of today is in a very different industry, instead developing, manufacturing, and then distributing all the tools of war; from light to heavy weaponry, space vessel weapons, ship-building, aircraft, ground vehicles, combat spacesuits, and even military software. While the business of war remains their main focus as a corporation, Zavodskoi also has a significant Security Solutions Branch, split further into civilian and paramilitary departments, the former known for their professionalism. Lastly, they also produce the Z.I. line of positronics, used by all branches of the corporation, but with an emphasis on use in private security and military contracting. <br />
<br />
Since the beginning of the [[Phoron|phoron scarcity]], Zavodskoi Interstellar has seen, alongside the myriad of issues in manufacturing, research, and weapons development, the scarcity brought, a surprisingly rise in relevance and profits, as civil and international unrest continue to grow across the Orion Spur. As the scarcity continues and tensions - both those between nationstates and corporations - grow, Zavodskoi has made a fortune acting as a merchant of death for all parties; as fighting forces of all kinds continue to grow larger and larger, Zavodskoi is there selling any willing customer whatever tools of war they require. Most notably, its continued relationship with the [[Empire of Dominia]] has earned the corporation an unexpected pretty penny from defense contracts for both the Imperial Army and Imperial Navy, alongside an uncontested market within the Empire, as no other corporation has been able to establish a real foothold there. <br />
{{TOC Hidden}}<br />
== Corporate Affairs ==<br />
<br />
=== History ===<br />
<center>''"Violence is a historical constant, stretching back to the very beginning of every species recorded history, to when they first arose out of the mud. All we do is make that inherent instinct easier to accomplish."'' - An Unknown Necropolis Executive giving an internal speech, ~2380.<br />
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</center><br />
Necropolis Industries was founded in 2259 by Yefim Dementyev, a former aerospace engineer within the Soviet Union, the final step in conglomerating the defense, heavy industry, and medical corporations within the Soviet sphere under one banner (one of the reasons for their operations on [[Pluto]]), primarily to avoid them being bought out by competitors from other regions, such as [[Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals]] and [[Hephaestus Industries]]. While buyout was avoided, the newly formed Necropolis Industries was late to the party, as their competitors had been formed almost a century earlier, and established themselves within their respective markets of the wider [[Solarian Alliance]] at a level Necropolis could not compete with; until just a year later. In 2260 the [[Sol Alliance History|Solarian economy crashed]], and along with it both Zeng-Hu and [[Hephaestus Industries]]. The rival corporations to Necropolis were forced to desperately cut costs, shutter facilities, even close entire branches, as [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bailout the government bailed them out to stay solvent], allowing Necropolis to move into the markets they had abandoned, and in those that the established players didn’t leave, compete with them. They moved quickly, taking much of the defense manufacturing industry from [[Hephaestus Industries]], and a significant portion of the genetics industry from [[Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals]]. This move would be the start of a rivalry that would last centuries.<br />
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The outbreak and years of the [[Timeline|Interstellar War]] saw Dementyev oversee the rapid expansion of Necropolis, opening hundreds of new facilities every year to research, develop, and manufacture the tools of war; most notably, arms of all kind (small arms to shipborne weapons), combat voidsuits, helicopters, fighters, combat vehicles, and mechs. If it was a piece of equipment used on the battlefield during the Interstellar War, it was probably manufactured by Necropolis, with limited exceptions. By the time the [[Timeline|Treaty of Xansan]] was signed, Necropolis was the largest “Merchant of Death” in the known galaxy. They manufactured more than ninety percent of all weapons within the Alliance, and over half of all the equipment used by the [[Solarian Armed Forces]].<br />
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However, as [[Timeline|relative peace followed the largest-scale conflict in human history]], the board of directors turned their gaze to a yet-untouched (by them) field; biological experimentation. Though [[Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals]] was unambiguously more adept and well-established than their competitor, Necropolis had been able to wrest away some of the market when Zeng-Hu was weak, primarily the submarkets of [[Technology|gene therapy, xenobiology, and biological limb replacements]]. Their work in these areas was of brief interest to the wider galactic community, and while official correspondence pointed to a desire to broaden their sphere of influence moving away from solely weapons manufacturing, insiders at the company would later recount that Yefim Dementyev had begun to feel the creeping fear of his own mortality. Rumours would tell that he was obsessed with preserving himself and his legacy, and would use his own resources at any cost to achieve this preservation.<br />
<br />
Dementyev's pursuit would prove unsuccessful as he abruptly died from a septic infection in 2317. His son, Yevgeniy Dementyev, took hold of the company's reins, and would oversee a corporation that almost immediately began struggling. When first contact was made with the [[Skrell]] in 2332, and their subsequent partnership with Zeng-Hu, Necropolis’s rival corporation in the biomedical scene benefited from the advanced knowledge of the Skrell, while Necropolis didn’t. Meanwhile, the demands for Necropolis’s arms were less and less every year, cutting into their profits. However, Yevgeniy stayed at the helm and continued steering the corporation for two decades, until he steered it into one of the most important moments in galactic history..<br />
<br />
In 2352, [[NanoTrasen]] would discover the element [[Phoron]] within the [[Tau Ceti|Romanavich cloud of Tau Ceti]], and Necropolis had been researching energy-based weapons for a long time; this discovery would allow for more powerful, longer-lasting, and better energy-based weapons; not to mention the massive applications it had for the creation of [[Synthetics|Military AI and Systems.]] Necropolis ended up being one of the first corporations to enter into a research & development agreement with NanoTrasen, this time being early to the party, meaning Necropolis got a much better deal than those who would come after. Originally looking to just develop new, more advanced tools of war to sell across the spur, they ended up doing [[Phoron|far more]].<br />
<br />
Necropolis [[Spurian Economy|prospered alongside NanoTrasen and the rest of the spur]], and while it was always the smallest and least profitable of the original seven megacorporations, it still became extravagantly wealthy as the technological revolution which followed phorons discovery in the decades after - known as the phoronic revolution - saw constant technological advancements that Necropolis could employ in defense manufacturing. From communication devices to tanks, and from voidsuits to small arms; for militaries, militias, private security contractors, and asset protection forces, Necropolis was the only corporation offering cutting edge equipment that might make the difference between living and dying in a firefight. It even branched out into cutting edge military specific AI applications. However all of the above required phoron to manufacture. It is during this time, Necropolis would bear witness to the contact with the [[Empire of Dominia]] by the Alliance. The corporation quickly took advantage of the nascent Empire's newness to the galactic stage, and established relations with the Great Houses and Emperor Godwin Keeser himself. From then on, Necropolis and the Empire's intimate ties meant that Necropolis boosted the efforts of not just [[Dominian Imperial Military|Dominia's conquest]], but the efforts of its [[technology|genetic modification]].<br />
<br />
Yet there is one discovery that neither NanoTrasen nor Necropolis speak much about, even today, and that is the discovery of the potential within '''[[Phoron|Diphoron and Phoron Oxides]]''', both colloquially referred to as “[[Phoron|Weapons Grade Phoron]].” What mudders the waters further is a lack of clarity as to when it's far scarier applications were discovered - those applications being the creation of '''[[Phoron|Phoron Warheads and Phoron WMDs]]'''. Contemporarily, these weapons are known to exist and may be the end of the Spur as we know it.<br />
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In 2409, Yevgeniy Dementyev passed down the mantle of chief executive officer to his son, Kasimir Boytsov. While Boytsov was not just a dabbler in genetics and had a keen mind like his father and grandfather, he was reputed for his impulsiveness and stubbornness, refusing to admit when the tides were turning against him. By 2450 Necropolis had become the neglected runner-up of the megacorporations, though it was always the smallest of them all, the valuation of the other major corporate entities was so far above their own, Necropolis was close to not even being compared. It was during this time that an information security operative at the company, Tikhon Zavodskoi, quietly recommended his cousin [[Notable Humans|Lyudmila]] for a position as a weapons researcher. "The woman from [[Pluto]]", as she would soon be called, quickly worked her way up the ranks of the company to become the assistant to the chief security officer, bringing in her own cohorts of associates from Dominia and Sol alike.<br />
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2462 was when change would overwhelm Necropolis, when Boytsov would collapse at a press conference, and fall into a coma. The company was sent into turmoil; Boytsov had never named a proper successor, despite his rapidly advancing age. [[Notable Humans|Lyudmila Zavodskoi]] had become a surprise contender, and her new group of executives, including her cousin Tikhon and the Imperial countess Kamilla Strelitz pushed out the old heads and helped turn Necropolis into rebranded, rebuilt Zavodskoi Interstellar.<br />
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In light of the company's turbulent history, Zavodskoi Interstellar opted to pursue what it knew how to do better than any other megacorporation in the Orion Spur: military equipment. Lymudmilla oversaw a total restructuring of the company, cutting the fat, unprofitable departments and branches, turning inwards to focus on the solid core industries of the corporation, of which there are three. The largest is its classical military-industrial complex, with a massive amount of Spur's military equipment, ranging from infantry small arms to combat hardsuits to vehicles to military AI and much more being produced by Zavodskoi or one of its subsidiaries. Its second is a result of Ingkom, its robust engineering wing; Zavodskoi engineering staff are a common sight throughout the Orion Spur, though their usage within the Solarian Alliance has faltered following the Solarian Collapse of late 2462. The smallest but most public-facing industry is its private security force. Known for their professionalism, Zavodskoi's security wing is one of the most competitive in the Orion Spur. This restructuring would see Zavodskoi’s year over year profits skyrocket, once more being a competitor amongst their megacorporate peers, and continues to be how the company is currently operated.<br />
<br />
=== Influence and Reputation ===<br />
<center>''"For all your Security Solutions!"'' - A common Z.I ad line.<br />
<br />
</center><br />
As a hiring practice, Zavodski Interstellar finds itself poaching highly skilled workers from other megacorporations. Workers with Zavodskoi usually flocked to the company to exploit its high pay - the restructuring that took place in 2462 means the company can offer far higher pay with far more benefits than their competitors, attracting industry experts from across the spur. Although perfecting and producing weapons of war is a task that will never truly be finished, the company is recognized as the uncontested leader in their development. As such, it holds a great deal of sway in almost every corner of the Spur that is only growing as the scarcity continues to worsen.<br />
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In this day and age, Zavodskoi has become the military industrial complex of the entire spur - the merchants of death who sell to both sides of a conflict, and care not for the suffering their creations cause. To have an armed fighting force within the Orion Spur means - with one exception - to rely on Zavodskoi to arm them. The only real exception is the Serene Republic of Elyra, whose military stands alone in not relying on the megacorporation. They pioneer where others do not by developing and manufacturing the highest-quality firearms, or just the biggest and baddest weapons they can muster. The extent of this research dominates every echelon of the corporation, leading to the unified pursuit of maximizing the efficiency of its stock, rather than trying to cover the widest range possible. This business has resulted in an almost freakish obsession by Zavodskoi with maintaining a good reputation, and every employee, down to the lowest, is expected to act extremely professionally.<br />
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However, like the rest of the spur, Zavodskoi’s manufacturing it reliant on phoron. Its energy weapons and other electronic equipment of any kind uses it extensively, and even its standard ballistic firearms need phoron, not directly but through the facilities and machines that produce them. Without phoron, Zavodskoi can’t produce any weapons, weapons systems, or equipment it developed after 2352.<br />
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The only thing that dominates the corporation on every level more than weapons development is a hatred of Hephaestus Industries. The two corporations have a rivalry going back centuries, and it continues in the modern day. While under the umbrella of the SCC, they are forced to work alongside each other, their hatred of each other runs deep, down to the common worker. It is not uncommon for Hephaestus employees to be unjustly harassed by Zavodskoi Security Contractors, nor is it uncommon for Zavodskoi factories to experience “technical difficulties” receiving power from Hephaestus run power grids, and such behavior is tacitly encouraged and rewarded by both corporations as a sign of loyalty; a practice that has seen this hatred only escalate, and some disputes end with severe injuries or even the death of someone involved. <br />
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<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
<br />
=== Positronics and Zavodskoi Interstellar ===<br />
In the aftermath of Necropolis Industries' rebranding into Zavodskoi Interstellar, [[Synthetics]] and [[IPC|Positronics]] have become more of a common sight in company facilities outside of the [[Empire of Dominia]].<br />
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Zavodskoi Interstellar’s synthetic units, known as Z.I., are used to staff their Spur-wide production facilities, provide technical expertise on-demand, and provide manpower to fulfill the company’s ever-increasing security contracts. To be a Zavodskoi synthetic, however, is to face an existence of systemic fragility. Zavodskoi Interstellar demands utter professionalism and respectability from its organic staff, and their positronics are held to an even more critical standard. <br />
<br />
'''Zavodskoi bars IPCs from command and leadership positions due to the corporation's internal policy, which views positronics as subordinate to organic personnel. This ban includes Zavodskoi Interstellar corporate liaisons.'''<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
====The Modern System====<br />
Having long since held a reputation as being particularly ruthless and draconian towards their units, with memory wipes, scrapping and reformatting being commonplace, the truth is that to be a Z.I. is a bit more complicated than it would appear at first glance. Before the Solarian Collapse, Zavodskoi Interstellar operated on a quasi-Burzsiean philosophy, relying on an informal code of mindwipes, harsh punishments, and strict discipline to keep its IPCs in check. Post-collapse, it began to view this practice as manpower hungry and inefficient for their rapidly scaling workforce. Whereas their primary competitors - Idris Security units - were viewed as culturally informed, classy and luxurious, the reputation of the Z.I. at the time was one of a brutish, rudimentary machine unsuitable for anything more complex than breaking knees. This realization began a period of modernization that is still ongoing, with the primary goals of producing higher quality units, and rehabilitating the image of not only the Z.I., but the company. While the prior system of harsh punishment over minor mistakes still exists, the application and details of those punishments have changed. <br />
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In an effort to move past a system which constantly wiped invaluable experience from its IPC workforce, Zavodskoi moved to a doctrine it calls the Modern System. Under this system, the company utilizes a complex system of social control to effectively police its synthetic staff. Privileges such as extranet access, better accomodation, infrequent off-duty hours for socialization, personalizing of one’s equipment and presence of friendly units are given only so that they might be taken away should the synthetic unit err, the predominant theory being that a synthetic who feels as though they have something to lose will have far more incentive to behave while avoiding the loss of generational knowledge associated with frequent wiping. The goal of the Modern System is to acquire as tight a control over the synthetic workforce as possible for the minimum amount of organic labor hours - something Zavodskoi has found great success in, resulting in a streamlined, hands off system of organization.<br />
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With that said, the reputation Zavodskoi acquired for wiping its synthetics over the smallest incident has not truly gone away, - nor would they like it to, as a Z.I. who believes they are only one mistake away from being wiped is typically an obedient one.<br />
<br />
====Zavodskoi Design Philosophy====<br />
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While there is no single Zavodskoi appearance, there are several unifying themes. The company only deploys shells and baselines, as G1s/G2s as well as Xion frames are Hephaestus designs and thus avoided. This reduces dependence on its corporate rival while simultaneously allowing the company to simplify its logistics chain for the purpose of upkeep. Shells typically have black, blonde, red, brown or white hair, red or black makeup and most often have visible mechanical elements incorporated into their designs to ensure they are not mistaken for their organic peers, as well as black, red, white or brown eyes. Visible ports, augmentation lines, and sleek black carbon fiber paneling is not an uncommon sight on Zavodskoi shells. Baseline Zavodskoi units are typically various shades of black, red, brown or white with similarly colored LEDs, carbon fiber panelling and may have designs painted upon them that represent the branch, area, or locale to which they are assigned. <br />
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In either case, the unit’s appearance is neat and tidy. In terms of clothing, both shells and non-shells wear the standard selection of Zavodskoi uniforms, and units on good behavior have limited ability to personalize their appearances items of flair such as decorative pins, stickers, patches, light jackets etc. The individual synthetic’s clothing depends most on that unit’s handler and purpose, however. A synthetic who is contracted as a guard to a Zavodskoi executive may find themselves dressed in high quality uniforms with designer sunglasses and other accessories as an extension of their handler’s wealth and status, whereas an engineer assigned to maintain a cargo freighter is likely to find themselves in older attire. Although Zavodskoi manufactures IPC chassis in-house and from its vast network of subsidiaries, it wholly outsources positronic brain production to Einstein Engines.<br />
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====Zavodskoi Synthetic Culture and Positronic Handlers====<br />
<br />
“Don’t you see? Our approach must be fundamentally different - the old system has failed. Under the Modern System, the token privileges we give them will be the exact trappings with which we use to control them. - memo found on Chief Robotics Officer Anabel Dexler’s desk.<br />
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For a ZI, status is perhaps one of - if not the most - important concepts in their entire lives. Status serves as both an additional barrier from punishment, a social currency that can be spent on privileges or personal effects, as well as being a social boon all on its own. Many factors can affect a unit’s perceived status, including but not limited to: a prestigious handler, accumulated privileges, completion of or assignment to high-value or high-risk tasks, outshining synthetics from competing companies, or mere age. This atmosphere of constant competition and comparison with one another has created a culture of near incessant bickering, infighting and one-upsmanship that can result in anything from gentle teasing and playful banter to deeply bitter rivalries and grudges. Zavodskoi handlers are known to allow and even facilitate this behavior, provided it does not inhibit the unit from performing their duties.<br />
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While at first not official policy, a practice of mentorship between Z.I.s originated at some point after Zavodskoi developed its social control model. Zavodskoi Synthetics are encouraged to form mentor-mentee relationships referred to as ‘partnerships’, where a senior unit functionally ‘adopts’ a more junior unit. These partnerships, established along department lines rather than production lines, function as a way for the senior unit to accrue further status by mentoring a potentially talented new unit, and for the junior unit to receive guidance and assistance in not only their jobs, but their survival as a Z.I. Partnered units will typically become quite close, this being another facet Zavodskoi is able to control and thus weaponize. Improper conduct can result in either mentor or mentee being unceremoniously separated from the other, access to their former partner forbidden or tightly restricted. It is for this reason, and the previously stated boons to education and experience that Zavodskoi not only allows these partnerships to form, but organizes them at the Handler level. Partnered units are typically assigned together and handled by the same Handler, though it is not unheard of for said partnerships to develop organically - albeit subject to their handler’s final approval. <br />
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The Zavodskoi Positronic Liaison - or Handler, is the center of their assigned unit’s worlds. While the size and scope of any one handler’s assignment may change, what does not change is that they hold effectively final authority over their units, and are responsible for almost every aspect of their lives. A unit’s assignment, equipment, berthing and more are all dictated by their handler, who may take or give these things as they deem suitable. Short of repeatedly wiping their units, there is little a handler could do to get themselves in trouble and they are free to advance their own agenda - or Zavodskoi’s - as they see fit. Many Z.I.s posted to third parties such as the SCC’s find themselves torn between the often clandestine desires of their handler, and the local regulation or SOPs of their assigned facility. Required to adhere to both, this balancing act is usually a no-win game for the Z.I. where the only true goal is minimizing the cost to themselves. <br />
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In addition to the Positronic Liaison, Zavodskoi has a unique program offered solely to high-performing employees in good standard. This program, called the Personal Lease, allows for Zavodskoi employees to lease a Z.I. unit for their own personal use. These units, while still under the overall command of their liaison, sees their day to day management handed off to their lease-holder who may broadly direct them as they wish, provided the unit is not damaged or encouraged to adopt thoughts not in keeping with Zavodskoi policy. Employees may apply for a ZI unit, but it is far more typical for high-ranking liaisons to offer their units to noteworthy employees as a reward. However, Zavodskoi’s motivation in enacting the Personal Lease Program is not entirely altruistic. Each Zavodskoi handler is responsible for many ZIs and generally do not pay personal attention to their units, and the Personal Lease program is seen as a way for Zavodskoi Employees to assist in the socialization of ZI units, as well as their correct and proper development.<br />
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Misbehaving Zavodskoi Interstellar units often find themselves suddenly reassigned away from their known synthetic associates, their shifts or patrol routes altered so as to isolate them. Their quarters are often searched and the few personal items they have managed to collect are seized and destroyed, any personalization of their outfit is removed, and so on. <br />
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''OOC Note: A player may play the handler of a Z.I. on station, so long as this is noted in the Z.I’s records. This may be done without the approval of the synth team, however a handler and a Z.I who are in breach of regulations may be subject to IC action and find themselves reassigned.''<br />
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====Zavodskoi Synthetic Lines====<br />
Most Zavodskoi Interstellar units fall into one four select lines, found below. ZIs who do not belong to one of these lines certainly exist, however, but most will be from four main lines. A Zavodskoi synthetic who does not fall into one of these four lines will format their name as Z.I. Name.<br />
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* '''Z.I.M ‘M-Types’ (Officer/Investigator):''' The Zavodskoi ‘Messer’ type asset security unit, known as an ‘M Type’ is the unit that most comes to mind when one thinks of the average Zavodskoi security unit. These units are the primary asset security unit leased to third party facilities and customer facing external positions. Pleasant, friendly, and professional to a fault, these units are most often seen on the protection detail of VIPs, patrolling the grounds of wealthy estates, or leased as security to consumer-level facilities such as commercial vessels, shops, etc. Most M-Types are typically more charming than not, and are known for their sociability as well as their effectiveness. M-Types are exclusively shells, are typically quite tall with short hair and may be any gender. M-Types may be a security officer, or investigator.<br />
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A curious behavioral quirk observed by M type handlers is that while already a friendly unit, M Types typically form close protective bonds with Hazel units. This has made the M-Type an overwhelmingly popular choice for service-based and estate security work, with buyers knowing that their Zavodskoi M-Type Asset Security Unit will fit in well with already present staff. The naming convention for an M-Type is Z.I.M. Name. Example: Z.I.M. Felix<br />
* '''Z.I.A. ‘A-Types’ (Officer/Warden):''' Zavodskoi ‘ANCILE’ type asset security units, known as ‘A-Types’, are most often used for Zavodskoi internal security. Being a line of exclusively baselines, they are deployed in situations where sociability comes second to defense. Zavodskoi site security, internal security, and more critical situations often deploy A-types, who are known for being a bit more sturdy and defense focused than their more sociable M-Type colleagues. A-Types adhere to the Zavodskoi Baseline Design Philosophy, are not programmed to adopt any organic gender, and may be an officer or a warden. The naming convention for an A-Type is Z.I.A. Name. Example: Z.I.A. Anais.<br />
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The A-Type is broadly seen as a continuance of the traditional Zavodskoi synthetic worker - simple, industrious, and without much in terms of bells and whistles. Many Handlers swear by them for their ease of use and initially simple personality matrix, however, this is not to say that A-Types are incapable of forming complex identities and desires.<br />
* '''Z.I.N Units ‘N-Types’ (Investigator):''' Zavodskoi ‘NOUS’ types, also known as N-Types, are the primary investigatory unit fielded by the corporation. N-Types are most often leased out to municipalities across human space that find themselves requiring outside assistance with their investigatory and forensic backlog, financial institutions wishing to combat fraud, and of course Zavodskoi’s own internal affairs department. It is for this reason that even among Zavodskoi’s own synthetics N-Types are regarded with some base level of suspicion. N-Types are shell only, are programmed in either gender, typically have longer hair and are of average height.<br />
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N-Types are typically quite cerebral and stoic, not as outgoing as M-Types but certainly more sociable than A-Types. They boast an impressively high case clear rate, but as a result are prone to overthinking as well as ponderance, and some units have even been known to develop an obsession over particularly frustrating cases. N-Types may only be an investigator. The naming convention for an N-Type is Z.I.N. Name. Example: Z.I.N. Mary.<br />
* '''Z.I.G Units ‘G-Types’ (Engineer/Atmospheric Technician):''' The Zavodskoi ‘GLAUKOPIS’ series is the workhorse of the Zavodskoi engineering family. They are known for their passion for their work, patience with the inexperienced, and an innovative erudition that they enjoy sharing with their colleagues. G-Types employ a meticulous attention to detail paired with a desire to optimize and refine, making them a favorite of any facility requiring engineering personnel. While G-Types may be shells or baselines, shells are typically more industrial looking than their M-Type or N-Type peers. G-Type shells have tough, rubbery skin that cannot be mistaken for organic flesh, outright industrial appendages, plenty of exposed mechanicals and so on. G-Types are typically quite short and sturdy, designed to endure the often dangerous rough and tumble existence of engineering work.<br />
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While G-Types are certainly skilled, they have a tendency to overcomplicate things for themselves in pursuit of unattainable perfection. It is for this reason that G-Types are encouraged to form partnerships among themselves, and thus are more easily able to ground the other. G-Types may be engineers, or atmosphere technicians. The naming convention for a G-Type is Z.I.G. Name. Example: Z.I.G. David<br />
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====Zavodskoi Synthetic Conduct====<br />
Zavodskoi Interstellar units are held to strict standards of conduct and professionalism. In addition to upholding standard workplace etiquette, the company has outlined specific provisions in a Z.I’s code of conduct. They are not allowed to harbour beliefs deemed as dangerous such as a belief in the Trinary Perfection, Anti-Corporate Ideas, or any form of dissent. The forming of romantic relationships by positronic personnel are strictly disallowed within the company, and any that are identified by their Handlers find themselves swiftly separated and penalized. <br />
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In regards to Imperials, every Zavodskoi Unit is familiar with at least the basics of Tribunalism to better serve the many Tribunalists in the company, and know better than to antagonize or frustrate Zavodskoi’s largest customer base. Inversely, too, are Tribunalists within the company instructed not to interfere to overly antagonize valuable Zavodskoi equipment.<br />
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<br />
=== Vaurcae ===<br />
<br />
In late 2463, the [[Vaurca Hives#Zo'ra|Zo’ra Hive]] announced publicly a partnership with Zavodskoi Interstellar after selling the rights to the production of the hydrogen rifle, a complex Zo’rane design that is cheap in ammunition. Shortly after, a meeting in [[Caprice#New Sedantis|New Sedantis]] was held with Zavodskoi executives and Hive officials to allow Vaurcae enter their workforce, akin to the synthetic introduction following the Necropolis rebranding. Besides [[Nanotrasen]], Zavodskoi is the other megacorporation that is comfortable in employing Bound assets, particularly in engineering, though they have no issue with Unbound as they are considered similar to the Z.I. synthetics, despite their many differences.<br />
<br />
Before striking a deal with [[Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals]], the [[Vaurca Hives#C'thur|C'thur Hive]] considered a deal with Necropolis Industries as an alternative. However, the proposition never followed through and the conversation between the two parties did not resurface until 2463. It is rumored that the Zo’ra deal with Zavodskoi was made only after C’thur began to sell their workforce mainly to Ingkom. Whatever the case may be, both Hives are now on equal terms with Zavodskoi Interstellar, which has no trouble dealing with them despite their differences.<br />
<br />
==Executives and Branches==<br />
===Executives===<br />
[[File:LyudmilaZavodskoi.png|thumb|Lyudmila Zavodskoi, CEO of Zavodskoi Interstellar.]]<br />
<br />
'''Chief Security Officer:''' Kamilla Strelitz, b. 2430<br />
<br />
A close advisor of Lyudmila Zavodskoi, Countess Dame-Companion Kamilla Strelitz was promoted to chief security officer after the takeover and rebranding of Necropolis Industries. A tough-as-nails former lieutenant in [[Dominian Imperial Military|His Majesty's Imperial Fleet]], Kamilla goes against the grain of House Strelitz's conservative ideology by readily encouraging the company's influence in the [[Empire of Dominia]]. She has shown her aptitude for her position through the continued success of campaigns initiated by Zavodskoi Interstellar, all while commanding the company’s largest sector of personnel. She is known to brook little room for failure, and despite her affable, ever-polite demeanor, the punishments for evoking her wrath are the stuff of whispered legend among her direct subordinates.<br />
<br />
'''Chief Research Officer:''' Jaco Du Plessis, b. 2413<br />
<br />
The [[Europa|Europan]] Jaco Du Plessis was poached by Zavodskoi Interstellar from [[Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals]] shortly after the rebranding of Necropolis. A chemical biologist with a specialty in weapons and toxins, he is vocal regarding his stunted growth with his prior employer, claiming the echelons of Zeng-Hu are largely filled by nepotism and cronyism. Du Plessis regularly advocates for those with ambitions to instead fill the ranks of Zavodskoi Interstellar, promising fulfillment, advancement, and better pay. Because of this regular advertising and his willingness to do interviews, some consider him the “face” of the corporation; this perception is usually encouraged by his presence at conferences when new company projects are unveiled. Similarly to Kamilla Strelitz, he holds his personnel to a high standard, expecting them to either “be all in, or find employment elsewhere”.<br />
<br />
'''Chief Risk Officer:''' Tikhon Zavodskoi, b. 2398<br />
<br />
Lyudmila Zavodskoi's paternal cousin, Tikhon Zavodskoi is one of the few remnants of Kasimir Boytsov's reign and has managed to remain in his position as Chief Risk Officer for almost a decade. He was the one to originally recommend Lyudmila for a position at Necropolis. His background as an officer of SPOK, [[Pluto|Pluto's]] governing body, is thought to have shaped his sharp instincts and keen sense of planning, and prior to the company's rebranding is credited with having fended the wolves from Necropolis for years prior. Detractors consider his continued presence merely due to his familial relationship with Lyudmila Zavodskoi, which she has roundly dismissed as baseless rumours originating from lingering nostalgia. He lives on [[Moroz]] along with his immediate family and his cousin.<br />
<br />
===Branches===<br />
<br />
'''Nova Luxembourg, [[Moroz]], Mira Sancta:''' The Dominian branch can be found near the city centre, prominently overlooking the Court of Chalser. Residing in what was once a bank, the recently constructed grandiose exterior - that despite appearances can shrug off almost any punishment - encloses the administrative heart of the corporation, and throughout the building, security is known to be incredibly tight. Once just focused on Dominian operations, it has since rapidly expanded, becoming Zavodskoi Interstellar's main headquarters, tripling in size. The move brought with it a large amount of manufacturing plants, located across the Empire of Dominia - revitalizing the megacorporation's interest in the region.<br />
<br />
'''Tolyatti, Soviet Union, [[Earth]], [[Sol]]:''' The previous headquarters of Zavodskoi Interstellar can be found in Tolyatti. The skyscraper complex consisted of three Zavodskoi buildings, a Kumar Arms building, and a ConTec building. The complex was especially austere and compact, mostly as a result of socialist influences during its construction. Today, the Tolyatti Headquarters are abandoned, thanks to the collapse of the Solarian Alliance and Zavodskoi Interstellar's move to Mira Sancta. The Solarian Department of Defense has, according to rumors, floated the idea of repurposing the former headquarters as a command centre for the Solarian Army.<br />
<br />
'''Cape Town, Union of South Africa, Earth, Sol:''' The Cape Town branch sits on the edge of a small cliff, overlooking the ocean. Home to the headquarters of Ingkom, the Cape Town building is a sleek, modernist building with distinctive arched rooves. It is surrounded by several shuttle pads and hangars, some which provide direct transport to the Gagaringrad branch on Luna. The Cape Town branch continues to operate, despite Zavodskoi Interstellar's move to Mira Sancta, mostly due to the building being rented from the Solarian Alliance, instead of owned by the megacorporation.<br />
<br />
'''Gagaringrad, [[Luna]], Sol:''' Gagaringrad's Zavodskoi headquarters is the corporations center of operations for the Alliance, and consists of a black obelisk building on the outskirts of the city's dome, and looks more a fortified bunker than an office building, a fact that is not helped by the installed defensive armaments and high security presence. It is set behind winding alleyways and few good parking spaces, and possesses many subterranean basement levels leftover from its time as a Necropolis building. Much of these levels are locked by clearance level, with speculation and conspiracy surrounding what may await inside them.<br />
<br />
'''Mendell City, [[Biesel]], [[Tau Ceti]]:''' The Mendell City branch situated within District 10 was renovated in 2462, shortly before the unveiling of the [[Stellar Corporate Conglomerate]]. It is constructed in the style of Soviet Classicism, said to be designed to Lyudmila Zavodskoi's personal tastes. With its Corinthian pillars, primarily stone and concrete materials, and tall, spindly central tower, the building is remarkably distinct from other buildings in Mendell's skyline.<br />
<br />
==Divisions==<br />
<br />
=== Security ===<br />
While officially one division, and the smallest one at that, Zavodskoi’s Security Division is composed of two separate wings that rarely overlap or exchange employees; the civilian/corporate security wing and the paramilitary wing.<br />
<br />
==== Civilian Wing ====<br />
Zavodskoi's civilian/corporate security wing is among the most well known in the spur, and has a reputation for professionalism that delivers results. Many of the new recruits originate from the [[Empire of Dominia]], whether they be Imperial frontiersmen looking to pay off their blood debt or young nobles looking for career experience before they take on the duties expected of their station. Being directly employed with Zavodskoi security involves escorting logistics vessels (usually hired by [[Orion Express]] or nation-states with fledgling militaries), stationing around research facilities, guarding other corporate facilities, event security, reinforcing local police forces, and, in some cases, acting as cybersecurity and forensics experts. It is the face of the corporation, and what it is most well known for. As a result, the corporation has an almost fanatical obsession with maintaining an extremely high standard of professionalism within this wing, for the greater good of the company. Employees who don’t meet this standard may find themselves transferred to less prestigious posts, or otherwise hidden away, if not outright fired.<br />
<br />
This wing has found a significant amount of work with the [[MCPD]] and other police departments around the spur since the onset of the [[Phoron|scarcity]] as crime continues to rise along with civil unrest, stretching the capacities of local police forces to their limits. In [[Mendell City]] especially, it has become just as common to see a Zavodskoi Officer patrolling down a street as it is a state police officer. Those assigned to reinforce the [[MCPD]] are fully deputized to act as Law Enforcement Officers of the Republic, and are granted sweeping authority over Mendell City Residents; a level of authority that officers are expected to remain professional with. Officers who make mistakes or overstep their boundaries are made examples of, usually being fired if not arrested for abuse of their position. However, more and more brutal methods of maintaining order are being authorized with every passing day - the scarcity shows no sign of stopping and quality of life continues to drop - as crime spikes and civil unrest flares up consistently. Given their obsession with maintaining a spotless, professional image, Zavodskoi Officers assigned to [[Mendell City]] are now often issued separate uniforms lacking any emblems besides the logo of the [[MCPD]] and told not to wear clothing with Zavodskoi's emblem on it. After all - it's hard to maintain that image if there's media of your officers with your logo coming out to break kneecaps whenever violence spills into one of the nicer districts.<br />
<br />
==== Paramilitary Wing ====<br />
In contrast to the growing civilian/corporate security wing, much of Zavodskoi's paramilitary wing, and the large-scale operations they conducted, has begun to be folded into Falerio Security Services, with new recruits largely being Jadraners and Morozian secondaries. That said, Zavodskoi’s paramilitary wing is still active, having the second highest operation count of all the SCCs corporations, and focuses on small, elite teams of operatives - each team varying in size from five members to fifteen. Commonly referred to as “Kill Teams” by the public - due to their reputation for targeted assisination operations on [[Mictlan]] during the Peacekeeper Mandate (these teams were also accused of murdering former prime minister Frost) - the actuality of the matter is they are Zavodskoi’s go to problem solvers for any situation if other options fail, and have an intense amount of training to match. Sometimes teams will operate together, sometimes they’ll act alone, just as sometimes they’ll act with the permission of the local government, and sometimes they won’t. If Zavodskoi needs a problem solved anywhere, these teams are who they call, and given Zavodskoi’s obsession with their image (alongside the fact that these teams often do VERY illegal things) discretion is valued over professionalism; members of this wing expected to take what they see and do on the job to the grave, having NDAs to match. As a result of their confidentiality, mission profile, and intense training, it is unheard of for employees of this wing to transfer to the civilian/corporate wing. On the flipside, it is only exceedingly rare for an employee of the civilian/corporate wing to transfer to the paramilitary wing - a security officer who displays the right aptitude and impresses the right people has a shot at it.<br />
<br />
=== Shipbuilding/Engineering ===<br />
Competing with Hephaestus Industries in the field with considerable malice, and for centuries, Zavodskoi's subsidiary Ingkom is their most recent attempt to force the Industrial Titan to give up more of the shipbuilding market share, specifically in the vein of military shipbuilding. A recent acquisition, one made after Lyudmilla’s ascension to CEO, this gambit has only really seen success in the Empire of Dominia, where Ingkom supplies a majority of the vessels used by the Imperial Navy, and nowhere else. The rest of the spur would still prefer to get Hephaestus to build the warships and then put Zavodskoi guns on them - much to the frustration of both corporations who would like to hurt the other's bottom line. However, until then, especially in the midst of the scarcity, the corporations are forced to live with this state of affairs - for if Hephaestus makes its ships incompatible with Zavodskoi arms, or the other way around - both would lose the defense contracts they value so highly, and no-one would buy from either corporation.<br />
<br />
=== Military Manufacturing ===<br />
Zavodskoi is the premier manufacturer of military equipment in the [[Orion Spur]], considered even more prolific in the field than Necropolis Industries was previously, and have a stranglehold on the market. Any entity, from nations to other megacorporations, will often find themselves purchasing military equipment from Zavodskoi, or one its subsidiaries, such as Kumar Arms. Zavodskoi does this at a level and scale no other can match - in terms of total output, Zavodskoi produces more than ninety percent of all military goods in the known galaxy - the big exception being the Serene Republic of Elyra, who only has about thirty percent of their military equipment from the corporation. Though their mass manufacturing might give the idea of cheaply made, low quality weapons, Zavodskoi armaments are known to be extremely reliable, easy to use, and generally better overall than their competitors, no matter the scale. While [[Hephaestus Industries]] has attempted to compete with Zavodskoi in the ship weapons manufacturing department, their lack of establishment in the field means Zavodskoi continues to outstrip their sales.<br />
<br />
==== Military Robotics and AI ====<br />
A specialized wing under their military manufacturing division, Zavodskoi is the leading developer of [[Synthetics|military AI and military robots]]. Whether it’s the basic machine learning algorithm used in most scanning systems to filter out white noise and highlight faint signals, or the massively powerful, fully sentient AI found on warships, if it’s used for a military application, it’s probably made by Zavodskoi. This wing has been hit harder than any other division or wing by the ongoing phoron scarcity, as due to the sheer level of data transfers, phoron is a prerequisite material for this. As a result of these inherent expenses, even prior to the scarcity, the integration of Zavodskoi military AI and systems was always an expensive one, so regular soldiers only ever saw basic systems and AI - basic for the contemporary spur but still leagues beyond what they had prior to phoron - and the more advanced intelligences of the contemporary spur were reserved for bigger things, such as ships. In the midsts of the scarcity - it’s become even more expensive, but still a necessity if one wishes to retain a competitive edge.<br />
<br />
Kumar Arms, on the other hand, is one of the leading producers in combat mechsuits and hardsuits. It supplies the Solarian, Dominian, and Biesellite militaries, and makes a tidy profit off private military contractors in the [[PMCG]] and beyond. Common features include personal shielding, advanced inbuilt intelligences (or in the case of Dominia, systems) hardpoint-mounted lasers and ballistic cannons, and reinforced plating.<br />
<br />
=== Genetics ===<br />
A now defunct department, Necropolis began branching into the field of biological experimentation in the 2200s, after the Interstellar War. Massively outstripped by [[Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals]] in age, expertise, and size, the biosciences division of the company was an awkward tacked-on branch that mainly fuelled bioweapon, toxin, and combat stimulant research, with a small contingent of genetic enhancement experiments being performed under top-secret regulation. When the company became Zavodskoi, the cloistered gene enhancement branch was opened mostly to House Volvalaad researchers from the [[Empire of Dominia]], assisting the House in their attempts to perfect their geneboosting technique. A small group of pre-Zavodskoi biologists also remain with the company, though their postings are seen as considerably less prestigious than the aforementioned bioweapons and gene enhancement researchers.<br />
<br />
==Subsidiaries==<br />
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===Kumar Arms===<br />
<i>"The best defense is a Kumar offense."</i><br />
<br />
'''Chief Executive Officer:''' Freia Salsnivna, b. 2438<br />
<br />
Kumar Arms is considered the backbone of Zavodskoi Interstellar, founded in the Soviet Union by Ilya Kumarov, a former Sukhoi engineer, in 2114. Primarily an arms manufacturing company, they saw a quick burst of growth during the interstellar war - one which was overshadowed by the massive growth of Necropolis. After this burst of growth, however, a series of poor financial decisions led the company to be acquired by Necropolis Industries in 2295, one of the last eastern arms manufacturing companies to be consolidated. The brand remained purchased, but Kumar Arms as a business gradually stagnated and became a shell company for Necropolis to use for shipping purposes. Once Necropolis became Zavodskoi Interstellar, however, Kumar Arms was revived and refurbished, becoming a massive arms manufacturer throughout the Spur, only beaten by Zavodskoi themselves. Currently, it is headquartered in St. Petersburg on Earth, though there are whispers of plans to move the primary headquarters and manufacturing centre to Alterim Obirava.<br />
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==== Major Products ====<br />
* '''M8 Service Pistol:''' Potentially the most-produced handgun in the modern Spur, the M8 is the standard service pistol of the Solarian Armed Forces, most Solarian police forces, and most mercenary detachments based in the Alliance. The M8 is a versatile design with dozens of variations, ranging from the Konyanger K8 to an alleged suppressed and caseless variant used by the Solarian Interstellar Intelligence Bureau.<br />
* '''M469 Assault Rifle:''' The iconic standard-issue rifle of the Solarian Armed Forces since the replacement of the earlier M376, the M469 is a durable and reliable weapon with countless variations. it is the most-produced assault rifle in the modern Orion Spur, and will likely remain that way for decades to come. Previously produced by Zavodskoi, the Alliance has since bought out the patent and licensed it to a variety of domestic producers such as the San Colette Interstellar Armaments Company, or CAISC.<br />
* '''2557 super-heavy pistol:''' The Kumar Arms 2557 is a newly designed type of "super-heavy" pistol. It features a light-weight polymer pistol grip, a bulky plasteel frame and an extra long barrel. It is chambered in the newly developed .599 Kumar Super rifle cartridge. Despite designed for rifle use, the newly developed propellants allows this cartridge for use in the Kumar Arms 2557, upping the stopping power significantly.<br />
* '''40mm rotary cannon "Francisca":''' Developed in 2461, the Francisca or "Frankie" rotary cannon is a ship battery designed for small to medium-sized ships. It can be loaded with full metal jacket, fragmentation, and armour-piercing ammunition, and is deadly to unarmoured small-craft.<br />
* '''90mm flak cannon "Grauwolf":''' For medium to large-sized vessels, the Grauwolf is a flak cannon capable of battering even cruiser-class vessels with a wide spread of salvo. Some larger courier vessels have equipped a Grauwolf to batter flocks of space carp, small meteor belts, and dust storms that threaten the integrity of their cargo. The Grauwolf's design has been spoofed many times, and has a cousin in the Xion Industrial 90mm cannon called the "Alberich."<br />
* '''180mm rotary cannon "Boudica":''' A medium-sized laser rotary cannon designed with similar function to the Francisca, notable for managing to do what the Francisca cannot and severely weaken the hull of unarmoured ships.<br />
* '''ZA-98/5 200mm naval gun "Lammergeier":''' A relatively old, and recently modernized, cannon designed for corvette-class vessels at the smallest, the Lammergeier is mounted on small Imperial Fleet vessels as a main battery and larger vessels as a secondary battery. Smaller than its 406mm cousin, the Longbow, and the Imperial Fleet's 608mm ZA-32/2, the Thunderer, the Lammergeier is a useful and adaptable weapon.<br />
* '''406mm high-velocity cannon "Longbow":''' An upgraded version of its "Ballista" predecessor, the Longbow is one of the largest cannons in Zavodskoi's arsenal, designed for frigate-class vessels and larger. With easier maintenance, a larger payload, and a more streamlined loading process, it has become the weapon of choice for several militaries across the Orion Spur.<br />
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<br />
===Confiance Technologies===<br />
<i>“Have confidence in Confiance.”</i><br />
<br />
'''Chief Executive Officer:''' Ilya Moules-Polorov, b. 2422<br />
<br />
Founded in Harmony City, [[Luna]] in 2427, Confiance Technologies (or ConTec) remain a successful company focusing on AI and synthetic component manufacturing. Acquired by Zavodskoi shortly after the company's renaming, ConTec was divided into two branches; a military wing and a commercial wing with the military wing being folded into Zavodskoi proper shortly after, leaving only the commercial wing remaining. ConTec's commercial wing, now its only wing, produces non-military equipment, including laptops, prothesis, watches, and PDAs, and operates across the Spur.<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
==== Major Brands ====<br />
* '''Centurion Prosthetics and Augmentations:''' Zavodskoi's iconic prosthetics line, usually offered to Zavodskoi employees at a discount in lieu of purchasing prosthetics from NanoTrasen, Zeng-Hu, or Hephaestus. The most recognizable look of Centurion prosthetics are their smooth, matte grey and red limb prosthetics, though the company also sells "realistic" prosthetics to Imperial Zavodskoi employees who prefer to keep the nature of their disabilities less obvious. Centurion synthskin, in reality, is simply soft rubber; it is not as reputable as the realistic prosthetics produced by Jeonshi Biotechnics, though it can be mistaken for a real limb from a distance.<br />
* '''Midnight Business Technology:''' Produced by the commercial wing of ConTec, the Midnight line of watches advertises itself as stylish yet cheap and functional workwear, mostly for Secondaries and Ma'zals in the [[Empire of Dominia]].<br />
* '''Legate Laptops:''' A series of laptops produced by commercial ConTec, known for being very heavy and very robust both on the software and hardware end. Prior to 2462, Legate was the official producer of laptops for the [[Solarian Armed Forces]].<br />
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<br />
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
<br />
===Ingkom===<br />
<i>"Pride and prosperity to all."</i><br />
<br />
'''Chief Executive Officer:''' Hanru De Beers, b. 2403<br />
<br />
Ingkom, or Bedryfsingenieurswese Kommissie, is a primarily engineering-focused subsidiary of Zavodskoi Interstellar, founded in South Africa, Earth in 2099. It has a long intertwined history with South Africa and its aggressive expansion into Sub-Saharan Africa. Initially, a state-owned enterprise tasked with rebuilding the destroyed infrastructure of Botswana, Zimbabwe, Lesotho and Eswatini after several successful military campaigns had rendered them territories. Early successes experienced by Ingkom resulted in its quick rise to importance within the South African economy, mostly due to reconstructions that allowed resource extraction operations to resume. The majority of the developed regions of these newly acquired territories were a direct result of Ingkom, and after sanctions had been lifted, allowed them to prosper and expand into the international market - mostly through Zavodskoi’s acquisition of the corporation as a subsidiary in 2463.<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
==== Major Products ====<br />
* '''''Uriel''-class Destroyer:''' ''Uriel''-class destroyers are corporate ships usually used for the transport of fighting forces, weapons, or other Zavodskoi products that require rapid deployment. During the Peacekeeper Mandate on [[Mictlan]], several Uriel-classes made rapid stops between [[Tau Ceti]] and Mictlan to deploy [[Tau Ceti Armed Forces]] and corporate auxiliary personnel to the planet. It comes fitted with a warp drive, almost never hosting a bluespace drive due to the expense involved, and as such Ingkom employs the finest pilots for these vessels. Losses of these vessels are considered quite serious and potentially crippling to Zavodskoi's supply line. Despite being classed as a destroyer, an ''Uriel''-class is more akin to a frigate in its displacement.<br />
* '''''Jinxiang''-class Destroyer:''' Produced in collaboration with the Zhurong Imperial Naval Arsenal, the ''Jinxiang''-class are a major component of the Imperial Fleet's screening forces. Featuring a surprisingly comfortable (if not quite spacious) area for living quarters, a compact life support system, and room for several point-defense gunneries, it continues to be a relevant design. Like most Imperial Fleet vessels, it is heavier and slower than comparative vessels of the same class -- an issue when dealing with more agile targets.<br />
* '''''Mumbai''-class Fast Battleship:''' Originally pioneered by Necropolis and built for the [[Solarian Armed Forces]], the ''Mumbai''-class was envisioned as a patrol leader that would be able to respond to all incursions with relatively swift speed for a flagship. While it did not have the armor or weaponry of a conventional battleship, it was a potent threat to any non-capital craft. Deemed a failure due to an ineffective cost-to-kill ratio against smaller, more agile pirate fleets, most ''Mumbai''-class vessels were assigned to forces in the Middle and Outer Ring. Many of these, such as the SAFV ''Toronto'' and the SAFV ''Chicago'', were appropriated by the rogue fleets of the Solarian Navy during the Collapse of 2463. Of note, the ''Toronto'' has been seized from the League of Independent Corporate-Free Systems mostly-intact after the siege of [[San Colette]] in 2465, and was refitted and rechristened as the SAFV ''Iqaluit'' by Ingkom and the Solarian Navy -- a rare example of a member of the class still in active service.<br />
<br />
</div></div><br />
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<br />
=== Falerio Security Services ===<br />
<br />
'''Chief Executive Officer:''' Filomena di Falerio, b. 2398<br />
<br />
Falerio Security Services was founded by [[Novi Jadran|Novi Jadranic]] Duchess Filomena di Falerio to continue the work of the Eridanian PMCs she had once hired to secure her holdings, using the (comparatively cheaper) local populace. Since its dealings with and acquisition by Zavodskoi Interstellar, it has grown into a capable contractor that works in the interests of both Duchess di Falerio and the corporation. Falerio Security Services found itself made up almost exclusively of Ma’zals (non-[[Moroz|Morozian]] citizens of the Empire) for a time, most of which had prior service in the [[Dominian Imperial Military|Imperial Army]]. Their primary duties were, outside of security of Falerio family assets, and the protection of Zavodskoi assets, within the Empire, though efforts were made to branch out in service of the Great Houses (particularly Caladius) and outside of the Empire. More recently however, Zavodskoi has begun using Falerio in a different way, as a paramilitary subsidiary; cutting most of their own security division’s paramilitary wing and transferring them to Falerio, the corporation that was once made up on exclusively Ma’zals is now made up of peoples and species from across the spur, not including positronics. As a result, Falerio has reorganized, creating a paramilitary wing, which contains all manner of species and people, and a civilin/corporate security wing, which is still primarily Ma’zals and continues the original work of the corporation. However, the paramilitary wing is significantly larger than the corporate security one, and is getting more attention as time goes on - leading to a fear that the corporate wing will be completely cut eventually. Until then however, as Falerio grows through word of mouth, many Army officers and old-blood nobility of the Houses Strelitz and Zhao are concerned that di Falerio's interests may jeopardise the military loyalty of Jadranics, and some have even started whispering that the large paramilitary force under her control is a threat to the empire. Corporate Security members employed by Falerio can be recognized by their distinctive uniforms and headgear bearing "IK" -- the initials for "Emperor Keeser" in Jadranic Common.<br />
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==== History ====<br />
Perhaps due to the prior presence of Xanu Defense Services and Jackal Incorporated, PMCs originating in the nations of their political rivals, the Empire has always been reluctant to branch into the [[Private Military Contracting Group]]. Duchess Filomena held no such reservations; when large copper and gold veins were discovered by villages in her holdings, she hired Ringspire and Eagle Corp to secure her holdings and push out the villagers who had lived a relatively unmolested life far away from her manse. When the dust had settled, Filomena quickly realised that Ringspire in particular was becoming very expensive and too aggressive for her tastes; evidence had come to light that the contractors may have been stealing ore for their own profit, and the casualties they left in their wake was becoming too much for even the Department of Colonial Affairs to ignore.<br />
<br />
Filomena decided to take a cue from the Eridanian Golden Fist and create her own private contracting group. Falerio Security Services targeted Ma'zals both young and old, those who had yet to pay off their Mo'ri'zal ("blood debt", the Empire's form of taxation) and who could be relied upon for loyalty to a cause. This caught the attention of Kamilla Strelitz, who offered to acquire the company in exchange for profit and reach that Duchess Filomena might not have had otherwise. Falerio Security Services was purchased by and became an official subsidiary of Zavodskoi, being able to take full advantage of its weaponry and resources that the Imperial Army often did not receive in full. That a relatively minor noble was able to secure such a key position in Dominia's closest megacorporation, as well as drawing away what were seen as once-loyal potential recruits to the Army, is a source of discontent among officers of the military and Novi Jadran's Imperial Mandate alike.<br />
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<br />
== Corporate Relations ==<br />
=== [[Stellar Corporate Conglomerate]] ===<br />
The newly founded Conglomerate’s ties with Zavodskoi are blatant, with a newly founded Corporate Asset Protection Fleet bearing weapons, munitions and equipment of Zavodskoi make across the board. Often remarked as having soft power and not hard power, the SCC, under the direction of Miranda Trasen, is moving to change this. While the Corporate Asset Protection Fleet is not much in terms of hard power - being significantly bigger than previous asset protection fleets, but still not a fully fledged military force - the solution to hard power can be found in the newly formed Tau Ceti Armed Forces, which have been rapidly expanding and militarizing since their inception. At the forefront of this is Zavodskoi, from high-end starship pieces to antique small arms, Zavodskoi provides it all, making them a key player in the Conglomerate’s military forces, both private and state controlled. This newfound niche alongside rising civil unrest and international tension has led to a resurgence of its presence galaxy-wide, and cooperation with the other megacorporations has proven very profitable.<br />
<br />
===[[Einstein Engines]]===<br />
Einstein Engines and Zavodskoi have a fairly neutral relationship - though the two do compete in the robotics sector, Zavodskoi has purchased many Einstein-made warp drives for its vessels over the years, and the two have both had generous supply contracts with the Solarian military in the past. In the modern day, Zavodskoi has lost a great deal of these contracts, while Einstein continues to hold many highly valuable government and military contracts - a factor which contributed to Zavodskoi's withdrawal of much of its Solarian business. In spite of this, it continues to purchase warp drives and positronic brains from Einstein frequently, due to the rising cost of phoron fuel and the easy availability of helium-3 from Zavodskoi's new home in the Empire of Dominia.<br />
<br />
===[[Hephaestus Industries]]===<br />
Hephaestus and Zavodskoi famously have the worst relationship between any two corporations within the Orion Spur, with roots of their rivalry going back as far as prior to the discovery of the warp. It is also the most publicly known, as the two corporations have famously been embroiled in dozens of public scandals with each other. As time went on the animosity between the two megacorporations only grew, as they competed extensively in industry, manufacturing, robotics and engineering fields for decades, boarding on centuries. All types of sabotage and espionage are common between Hephaestus and Zavodskoi, with both corporations having extensively bankrolled privateers, saboteurs and other plausibly deniable agents to attack their rivals. As Zavodskoi has expanded into the Empire of Dominia and Hephaestus into the Izweski Hegemony, the Sparring Sea and Badlands have become the two most recent, and largest, battlegrounds for the megacorporations, with corporate-funded pirates commonly targeting one another's vessels. In the present day, beyond the use of privateers, Zavodskoi has often been accused of funding radical anti-Hephaestus groups within the Izweski Hegemony, most notably the Champions of Moghes - a terrorist organization which has remained suspiciously well-equipped and well-informed of Hephaestus operations. Hephaestus, meanwhile, has often been suspected of bankrolling various Dominian rebel groups in recent years, in the hopes of weakening Zavodskoi's large investment in the Empire's development. Shared membership in the Stellar Corporate Conglomerate has done nothing to quell the two giants' bitter feud,, which has become a source of constant headaches for Miranda and the SCC, who have had to threaten to economically break both companies multiple times just so they keep their conflict out of the public perception and grudgingly cooperate with SCC business.<br />
<br />
===[[Idris Incorporated]]===<br />
Zavodskoi and Idris have been frequent competitors in the fields of security and IPC manufacturing, leading to a long-running mutual rivalry between the two corporation. Lyudmila Zavodskoi is known to have a personal distaste for Alex Mason, and Zavodskoi has frequently undercut Idris security operations in the Sol Alliance and Republic of Biesel. Zavodskoi employees are strongly discouraged from using Idris financial services, which NanoTrasen has done its best to encourage as many Zavodskoi employees in Biesel opt to make use of NanoTrasen banks instead. Idris has marketed its security division extensively as a high-class security option, with unstated implications of the marketing casting other corporations' security as little better than thuggish mercenaries, which Zavodskoi unsuccessfully attempted to sue Idris over. Though their rivalry is not as intense as that of Zavodskoi and Hephaestus, the two corporations remain on far from friendly terms.<br />
<br />
===[[NanoTrasen]]===<br />
Zavodskoi and NanoTrasen maintain a decent relationship, with little open conflict between the two corporations. Since the beginning of the phoron scarcity, however, Zavodskoi has taken full advantage of NanoTrasen's waning power in the Republic of Biesel, expanding its arms industry into the Republic. Since the formation of the Tau Ceti Armed Forces and the negotiation of several new supply contracts with Biesel's government, Zavodskoi has managed to take a great deal of business from NanoTrasen - seizing NT's position as the Republic's main weapons supplier. Though NanoTrasen still holds onto their original contract for the Tau Ceti Foreign Legion, the Minutemen and Republican Fleet are both almost entirely outfitted with Zavodskoi-made weapons, armor, and voidsuits. NanoTrasen has attempted to counteract this influence through the recent appointment of Nathan Trasen as Secretary of Defense - but even with a Trasen in such a prestigious position, Zavodskoi has still managed to secure a solid grasp on the Republic's military industry. NanoTrasen has increased funding to Nexus Corporate Security several times in an effort to use their newly-formed PMC to undermine Zavodskoi's security business in the Corporate Reconstruction Zone, with some measure of success.<br />
<br />
===[[Orion Express]]===<br />
Zavodskoi contributed large portions of its logistics division to Orion Express, and has maintained a decent relationship with the logistics corporation. Though their Solarian business has been scaled back substantially, Zavodskoi still relies on Orion vessels for transport of its goods in the Alliance, and Orion has been known to favor Zavodskoi security when outside force is required for particularly troublesome work. Orion's ties to Hephaestus are the largest source of tension between the two corporations, and Zavodskoi is rumored to have attempted to seed several of its own agents within Orion-Hephaestus joint operations in order to gather intelligence on their rival.<br />
<br />
===[[Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals]]===<br />
When Zavodskoi Interstellar was still known as Necropolis Industries, it was Zeng-Hu's major rival in the genetics sector, leading to fierce competition between the two corporations. Rumors of sabotage and corporate espionage were commonplace, and the theft of company secrets was commonplace on both sides. Following the rebrand to Zavodskoi Interstellar, however, the corporation has significantly cut back on its genetics division, leaving Zeng-Hu as a mostly unchallenged monopoly in the field. With the two megacorporations no longer in direct competition, the relationship between them has warmed significantly, with Zavodskoi choosing instead to redouble its efforts against its main rival, Hephaestus Industries. Though the two do still compete in the robotics sector, so far this has been far less of a source of tension between them.<br />
<br />
== Other Relations ==<br />
<br />
=== [[IPC|Synthetics]] ===<br />
While Necropolis Industries has always had synthetics, the rebranding to Zavodskoi Interstellar brought with it the very marketable Z.I. line, and saw the increase in production and distribution of synthetic workers. Zavodskoi employs their Z.I.s as precise, dextrous labour in machining, manufacturing and blanket industrial work. Many stubborn advocates of hand-crafting and several subsidiaries oriented around quality have made large steps towards vilifying these robotic mechanics, claiming that the “organic touch” is the key to quality. Some Zavodskoi employees have expressed similar sentiment, seeing the proliferation of synthetics as threatening their position and livelihood; official statements from Jaco Du Plessis have countered with Zavodskoi employees only needing to worry for their position if they do work of subpar quality.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, the company has refused all suggestions from the Empire of Dominia to cut down on its synthetic workforce, only refraining from its usage to comply with laws in the Empire itself. To Imperial citizens going abroad, Zavodskoi offers in-depth synthetic sensitivity courses, designed to acclimate Tribunalists to working with IPCs.<br />
<br />
=== [[Empire of Dominia]] ===<br />
<br />
While Necropolis Industries made limited attempts to branch further into Imperial territories, the ascension of Countess Kamilla Strelitz to Chief Security Officer has brought with it a new entanglement with the fledgling Empire. Dominia's own state corporations and Great Houses have all, in some way, made deals with Zavodskoi, and Ingkom's collaborations with Zhurong Naval Armaments have brought a massive increase in productivity to the Imperial war machine. The company plays a strong role in acclimating Imperial citizens to non-Imperial culture and sending them abroad, serving as Dominia's strongest connection to the rest of the [[Orion Spur]]. Meanwhile, Lyudmila Zavodskoi and her family remain close with the Royal Family, and she enjoys a seemingly close relationship with Crown Princess Priscilla.<br />
<br />
=== [[Sol Alliance]] ===<br />
<br />
Prior to the Solarian Corporate Authority's establishment and the mass nationalisation of corporate assets, Necropolis Industries was one of the primary weapon suppliers to the [[Solarian Armed Forces]], and Zavodskoi Interstellar continues that tradition. Despite the chaos ensuing form the nationalization of corporate assets, including the accusation by Solarian Intelligence Agencies that it was Zavodskoi who murdered former Prime Minister Frost, when the dust settled Zavodskoi was still there, with a majority of its manufacturing facilities, patents, and experience in manufacturing the tools of war still belonging to it. Being realistic, if a state wants arms for its army, it needs Zavodskoi Interstellar. So despite some small withdrawals, Zavodskoi remains basically just doing what Necropolis did before it, selling arms to the Alliance - as well as everyone else, of course. <br />
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{{Navbox Lore}}</div>The Strykerhttps://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=Sandbox2:The_Stryker&diff=38305Sandbox2:The Stryker2025-10-30T14:41:55Z<p>The Stryker: </p>
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{{Template:Navbox Corporations}}<br />
{{Infobox Corporation<br />
|headercolor = #920a0a <!--Can be left blank for grey header--><br />
|textcolor = white <!--Can be left blank for black text--><br />
|name = Zavodskoi Interstellar<br />
|logo = Zavodskoi_Interestellar<br />
|headquarters = Nova Luxembourg, [[Moroz]], [[Empire of Dominia]]<br />
|slogan = Even one matters on the battlefield.<br />
|languages = Tradeband, Tau Ceti Basic, Sol Common<br />
|ceo = [[Notable Humans#Lyudmila Zavodskoi|Lyudmila Zavodskoi]]<br />
|colors = <span style="color:#363c43">Black (#363c43),</span> <span style="color:#920a0a">red (#920a0a),</span> <span style="color:#7a6347">brown (#7a6347)</span><br />
|founded = 2259 (as Necropolis Industries)<br />
2462 (as Zavodskoi Interstellar)<br />
|founder = Yefim Dementyev (as Necropolis Industries)<br />
Lyudmila Zavodskoi (as Zavodskoi Interstellar)<br />
|regions =<br />
<br><br />
* [[Sol Alliance]]<br />
* [[Empire of Dominia]]<br />
* [[Republic of Biesel]]<br />
* [[Coalition of Colonies]]<br />
* [[Republic of Elyra]]<br />
|}}<br />
<br />
'''Zavodskoi Interstellar''', formerly Necropolis Industries, is the weapon’s development and manufacturing megacorporation of the Orion Spur. Originally founded in 2259 as a mishmash of corporations, the Zavodskoi of today is in a very different industry, instead developing, manufacturing, and then distributing all the tools of war; from light to heavy weaponry, space vessel weapons, ship-building, aircraft, ground vehicles, combat spacesuits, and even military software. While the business of war remains their main focus as a corporation, Zavodskoi also has a significant Security Solutions Branch, split further into civilian and paramilitary departments, the former known for their professionalism. Lastly, they also produce the Z.I. line of positronics, used by all branches of the corporation, but with an emphasis on use in private security and military contracting. <br />
<br />
Since the beginning of the [[Phoron|phoron scarcity]], Zavodskoi Interstellar has seen, alongside the myriad of issues in manufacturing, research, and weapons development, the scarcity brought, a surprisingly rise in relevance and profits, as civil and international unrest continue to grow across the Orion Spur. As the scarcity continues and tensions - both those between nationstates and corporations - grow, Zavodskoi has made a fortune acting as a merchant of death for all parties; as fighting forces of all kinds continue to grow larger and larger, Zavodskoi is there selling any willing customer whatever tools of war they require. Most notably, its continued relationship with the [[Empire of Dominia]] has earned the corporation an unexpected pretty penny from defense contracts for both the Imperial Army and Imperial Navy, alongside an uncontested market within the Empire, as no other corporation has been able to establish a real foothold there. <br />
{{TOC Hidden}}<br />
== Corporate Affairs ==<br />
<br />
=== History ===<br />
<center>''"Violence is a historical constant, stretching back to the very beginning of every species recorded history, to when they first arose out of the mud. All we do is make that inherent instinct easier to accomplish."'' - An Unknown Necropolis Executive giving an internal speech, ~2380.<br />
<br />
</center><br />
Necropolis Industries was founded in 2259 by Yefim Dementyev, a former aerospace engineer within the Soviet Union, the final step in conglomerating the defense, heavy industry, and medical corporations within the Soviet sphere under one banner (one of the reasons for their operations on [[Pluto]]), primarily to avoid them being bought out by competitors from other regions, such as [[Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals]] and [[Hephaestus Industries]]. While buyout was avoided, the newly formed Necropolis Industries was late to the party, as their competitors had been formed almost a century earlier, and established themselves within their respective markets of the wider [[Solarian Alliance]] at a level Necropolis could not compete with; until just a year later. In 2260 the [[Sol Alliance History|Solarian economy crashed]], and along with it both Zeng-Hu and [[Hephaestus Industries]]. The rival corporations to Necropolis were forced to desperately cut costs, shutter facilities, even close entire branches, as [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bailout the government bailed them out to stay solvent], allowing Necropolis to move into the markets they had abandoned, and in those that the established players didn’t leave, compete with them. They moved quickly, taking much of the defense manufacturing industry from [[Hephaestus Industries]], and a significant portion of the genetics industry from [[Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals]]. This move would be the start of a rivalry that would last centuries.<br />
<br />
The outbreak and years of the [[Timeline|Interstellar War]] saw Dementyev oversee the rapid expansion of Necropolis, opening hundreds of new facilities every year to research, develop, and manufacture the tools of war; most notably, arms of all kind (small arms to shipborne weapons), combat voidsuits, helicopters, fighters, combat vehicles, and mechs. If it was a piece of equipment used on the battlefield during the Interstellar War, it was probably manufactured by Necropolis, with limited exceptions. By the time the [[Timeline|Treaty of Xansan]] was signed, Necropolis was the largest “Merchant of Death” in the known galaxy. They manufactured more than ninety percent of all weapons within the Alliance, and over half of all the equipment used by the [[Solarian Armed Forces]].<br />
<br />
However, as [[Timeline|relative peace followed the largest-scale conflict in human history]], the board of directors turned their gaze to a yet-untouched (by them) field; biological experimentation. Though [[Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals]] was unambiguously more adept and well-established than their competitor, Necropolis had been able to wrest away some of the market when Zeng-Hu was weak, primarily the submarkets of [[Technology|gene therapy, xenobiology, and biological limb replacements]]. Their work in these areas was of brief interest to the wider galactic community, and while official correspondence pointed to a desire to broaden their sphere of influence moving away from solely weapons manufacturing, insiders at the company would later recount that Yefim Dementyev had begun to feel the creeping fear of his own mortality. Rumours would tell that he was obsessed with preserving himself and his legacy, and would use his own resources at any cost to achieve this preservation.<br />
<br />
Dementyev's pursuit would prove unsuccessful as he abruptly died from a septic infection in 2317. His son, Yevgeniy Dementyev, took hold of the company's reins, and would oversee a corporation that almost immediately began struggling. When first contact was made with the [[Skrell]] in 2332, and their subsequent partnership with Zeng-Hu, Necropolis’s rival corporation in the biomedical scene benefited from the advanced knowledge of the Skrell, while Necropolis didn’t. Meanwhile, the demands for Necropolis’s arms were less and less every year, cutting into their profits. However, Yevgeniy stayed at the helm and continued steering the corporation for two decades, until he steered it into one of the most important moments in galactic history..<br />
<br />
In 2352, [[NanoTrasen]] would discover the element [[Phoron]] within the [[Tau Ceti|Romanavich cloud of Tau Ceti]], and Necropolis had been researching energy-based weapons for a long time; this discovery would allow for more powerful, longer-lasting, and better energy-based weapons; not to mention the massive applications it had for the creation of [[Synthetics|Military AI and Systems.]] Necropolis ended up being one of the first corporations to enter into a research & development agreement with NanoTrasen, this time being early to the party, meaning Necropolis got a much better deal than those who would come after. Originally looking to just develop new, more advanced tools of war to sell across the spur, they ended up doing [[Phoron|far more]].<br />
<br />
Necropolis [[Spurian Economy|prospered alongside NanoTrasen and the rest of the spur]], and while it was always the smallest and least profitable of the original seven megacorporations, it still became extravagantly wealthy as the technological revolution which followed phorons discovery in the decades after - known as the phoronic revolution - saw constant technological advancements that Necropolis could employ in defense manufacturing. From communication devices to tanks, and from voidsuits to small arms; for militaries, militias, private security contractors, and asset protection forces, Necropolis was the only corporation offering cutting edge equipment that might make the difference between living and dying in a firefight. It even branched out into cutting edge military specific AI applications. However all of the above required phoron to manufacture. It is during this time, Necropolis would bear witness to the contact with the [[Empire of Dominia]] by the Alliance. The corporation quickly took advantage of the nascent Empire's newness to the galactic stage, and established relations with the Great Houses and Emperor Godwin Keeser himself. From then on, Necropolis and the Empire's intimate ties meant that Necropolis boosted the efforts of not just [[Dominian Imperial Military|Dominia's conquest]], but the efforts of its [[technology|genetic modification]].<br />
<br />
Yet there is one discovery that neither NanoTrasen nor Necropolis speak much about, even today, and that is the discovery of the potential within '''[[Phoron|Diphoron and Phoron Oxides]]''', both colloquially referred to as “[[Phoron|Weapons Grade Phoron]].” What mudders the waters further is a lack of clarity as to when it's far scarier applications were discovered - those applications being the creation of '''[[Phoron|Phoron Warheads and Phoron WMDs]]'''. Contemporarily, these weapons are known to exist and may be the end of the Spur as we know it.<br />
<br />
In 2409, Yevgeniy Dementyev passed down the mantle of chief executive officer to his son, Kasimir Boytsov. While Boytsov was not just a dabbler in genetics and had a keen mind like his father and grandfather, he was reputed for his impulsiveness and stubbornness, refusing to admit when the tides were turning against him. By 2450 Necropolis had become the neglected runner-up of the megacorporations, though it was always the smallest of them all, the valuation of the other major corporate entities was so far above their own, Necropolis was close to not even being compared. It was during this time that an information security operative at the company, Tikhon Zavodskoi, quietly recommended his cousin [[Notable Humans|Lyudmila]] for a position as a weapons researcher. "The woman from [[Pluto]]", as she would soon be called, quickly worked her way up the ranks of the company to become the assistant to the chief security officer, bringing in her own cohorts of associates from Dominia and Sol alike.<br />
<br />
2462 was when change would overwhelm Necropolis, when Boytsov would collapse at a press conference, and fall into a coma. The company was sent into turmoil; Boytsov had never named a proper successor, despite his rapidly advancing age. [[Notable Humans|Lyudmila Zavodskoi]] had become a surprise contender, and her new group of executives, including her cousin Tikhon and the Imperial countess Kamilla Strelitz pushed out the old heads and helped turn Necropolis into rebranded, rebuilt Zavodskoi Interstellar.<br />
<br />
In light of the company's turbulent history, Zavodskoi Interstellar opted to pursue what it knew how to do better than any other megacorporation in the Orion Spur: military equipment. Lymudmilla oversaw a total restructuring of the company, cutting the fat, unprofitable departments and branches, turning inwards to focus on the solid core industries of the corporation, of which there are three. The largest is its classical military-industrial complex, with a massive amount of Spur's military equipment, ranging from infantry small arms to combat hardsuits to vehicles to military AI and much more being produced by Zavodskoi or one of its subsidiaries. Its second is a result of Ingkom, its robust engineering wing; Zavodskoi engineering staff are a common sight throughout the Orion Spur, though their usage within the Solarian Alliance has faltered following the Solarian Collapse of late 2462. The smallest but most public-facing industry is its private security force. Known for their professionalism, Zavodskoi's security wing is one of the most competitive in the Orion Spur. This restructuring would see Zavodskoi’s year over year profits skyrocket, once more being a competitor amongst their megacorporate peers, and continues to be how the company is currently operated.<br />
<br />
=== Influence and Reputation ===<br />
<center>''"For all your Security Solutions!"'' - A common Z.I ad line.<br />
<br />
</center><br />
As a hiring practice, Zavodski Interstellar finds itself poaching highly skilled workers from other megacorporations. Workers with Zavodskoi usually flocked to the company to exploit its high pay - the restructuring that took place in 2462 means the company can offer far higher pay with far more benefits than their competitors, attracting industry experts from across the spur. Although perfecting and producing weapons of war is a task that will never truly be finished, the company is recognized as the uncontested leader in their development. As such, it holds a great deal of sway in almost every corner of the Spur that is only growing as the scarcity continues to worsen.<br />
<br />
In this day and age, Zavodskoi has become the military industrial complex of the entire spur - the merchants of death who sell to both sides of a conflict, and care not for the suffering their creations cause. To have an armed fighting force within the Orion Spur means - with one exception - to rely on Zavodskoi to arm them. The only real exception is the Serene Republic of Elyra, whose military stands alone in not relying on the megacorporation. They pioneer where others do not by developing and manufacturing the highest-quality firearms, or just the biggest and baddest weapons they can muster. The extent of this research dominates every echelon of the corporation, leading to the unified pursuit of maximizing the efficiency of its stock, rather than trying to cover the widest range possible. This business has resulted in an almost freakish obsession by Zavodskoi with maintaining a good reputation, and every employee, down to the lowest, is expected to act extremely professionally.<br />
<br />
However, like the rest of the spur, Zavodskoi’s manufacturing it reliant on phoron. Its energy weapons and other electronic equipment of any kind uses it extensively, and even its standard ballistic firearms need phoron, not directly but through the facilities and machines that produce them. Without phoron, Zavodskoi can’t produce any weapons, weapons systems, or equipment it developed after 2352.<br />
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The only thing that dominates the corporation on every level more than weapons development is a hatred of Hephaestus Industries. The two corporations have a rivalry going back centuries, and it continues in the modern day. While under the umbrella of the SCC, they are forced to work alongside each other, their hatred of each other runs deep, down to the common worker. It is not uncommon for Hephaestus employees to be unjustly harassed by Zavodskoi Security Contractors, nor is it uncommon for Zavodskoi factories to experience “technical difficulties” receiving power from Hephaestus run power grids, and such behavior is tacitly encouraged and rewarded by both corporations as a sign of loyalty; a practice that has seen this hatred only escalate, and some disputes end with severe injuries or even the death of someone involved. <br />
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<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
=== Positronics and Zavodskoi Interstellar ===<br />
In the aftermath of Necropolis Industries' rebranding into Zavodskoi Interstellar, [[Synthetics]] and [[IPC|Positronics]] have become more of a common sight in company facilities outside of the [[Empire of Dominia]]. These Zavodskoi IPCs are however banned from command and leadership positions within Zavodskoi Interstellar due to the corporation's internal policy, which views positronics as a workforce rather than a management force. This ban includes Zavodskoi Interstellar corporate liaisons.<br />
<br />
Zavodskoi Interstellar makes ample use of owned synthetic units, known as Z.I., to staff their Spur-wide production facilities and provide manpower to fulfill the company’s various security contracts or provide mission-critical technical expertise. To be a Zavodskoi synthetic, however, is to face an existence of systemic fragility. Zavodskoi Interstellar demands utter professionalism and respectability from its organic staff, and their positronics are held to an even more critical standard. <br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
Newly implemented and with some in the company opposed to their presence, Zavodskoi positronics face systemic fragility within the company. In an effort to employ and contract out the best representation for the company, Zavodskoi will routinely memory wipe, retool, or outright scrap and sell their IPCs for workplace accidents, failure to execute an order, or underperformance. This process has been largely seen as a lighter version of the Burzian Method. This authority does not extend to Zavodskoi Interstellar corporate liaisons although they are encouraged to check in with their positronic contractor personnel from time to time. Therefore, Zavodskoi positronic contractors are often those struggling to maintain a positive evaluation or saved from the scrapyard all together.<br />
<br />
In an effort to bolster company morale, organic personnel are able to lease out Zavodskoi asset IPCs, should they so choose. This allows personnel to ‘own’ a positronic for the home without the burden of maintenance fees. For the IPCs affected, this can work to their benefit or their demise. As more lax personnel may feel less inclined to report aberrancy, whereas other synthetics would find themselves under greater scrutiny.<br />
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Z.I. units are most commonly Shell frames and baseline units. Hephaestus Industrial and Xion Frames are almost never seen, due to the rivalry between Zavodskoi and Hephaestus.<br />
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'''It is expected for Zavodskoi Interstellar IPCs to adopt the prefix Z.I. followed by their designation. An example of this formatting is Z.I. Name.'''<br />
</div></div><br />
<br />
=== Vaurcae ===<br />
<br />
In late 2463, the [[Vaurca Hives#Zo'ra|Zo’ra Hive]] announced publicly a partnership with Zavodskoi Interstellar after selling the rights to the production of the hydrogen rifle, a complex Zo’rane design that is cheap in ammunition. Shortly after, a meeting in [[Caprice#New Sedantis|New Sedantis]] was held with Zavodskoi executives and Hive officials to allow Vaurcae enter their workforce, akin to the synthetic introduction following the Necropolis rebranding. Besides [[Nanotrasen]], Zavodskoi is the other megacorporation that is comfortable in employing Bound assets, particularly in engineering, though they have no issue with Unbound as they are considered similar to the Z.I. synthetics, despite their many differences.<br />
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Before striking a deal with [[Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals]], the [[Vaurca Hives#C'thur|C'thur Hive]] considered a deal with Necropolis Industries as an alternative. However, the proposition never followed through and the conversation between the two parties did not resurface until 2463. It is rumored that the Zo’ra deal with Zavodskoi was made only after C’thur began to sell their workforce mainly to Ingkom. Whatever the case may be, both Hives are now on equal terms with Zavodskoi Interstellar, which has no trouble dealing with them despite their differences.<br />
<br />
==Executives and Branches==<br />
===Executives===<br />
[[File:LyudmilaZavodskoi.png|thumb|Lyudmila Zavodskoi, CEO of Zavodskoi Interstellar.]]<br />
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'''Chief Security Officer:''' Kamilla Strelitz, b. 2430<br />
<br />
A close advisor of Lyudmila Zavodskoi, Countess Dame-Companion Kamilla Strelitz was promoted to chief security officer after the takeover and rebranding of Necropolis Industries. A tough-as-nails former lieutenant in [[Dominian Imperial Military|His Majesty's Imperial Fleet]], Kamilla goes against the grain of House Strelitz's conservative ideology by readily encouraging the company's influence in the [[Empire of Dominia]]. She has shown her aptitude for her position through the continued success of campaigns initiated by Zavodskoi Interstellar, all while commanding the company’s largest sector of personnel. She is known to brook little room for failure, and despite her affable, ever-polite demeanor, the punishments for evoking her wrath are the stuff of whispered legend among her direct subordinates.<br />
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'''Chief Research Officer:''' Jaco Du Plessis, b. 2413<br />
<br />
The [[Europa|Europan]] Jaco Du Plessis was poached by Zavodskoi Interstellar from [[Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals]] shortly after the rebranding of Necropolis. A chemical biologist with a specialty in weapons and toxins, he is vocal regarding his stunted growth with his prior employer, claiming the echelons of Zeng-Hu are largely filled by nepotism and cronyism. Du Plessis regularly advocates for those with ambitions to instead fill the ranks of Zavodskoi Interstellar, promising fulfillment, advancement, and better pay. Because of this regular advertising and his willingness to do interviews, some consider him the “face” of the corporation; this perception is usually encouraged by his presence at conferences when new company projects are unveiled. Similarly to Kamilla Strelitz, he holds his personnel to a high standard, expecting them to either “be all in, or find employment elsewhere”.<br />
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'''Chief Risk Officer:''' Tikhon Zavodskoi, b. 2398<br />
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Lyudmila Zavodskoi's paternal cousin, Tikhon Zavodskoi is one of the few remnants of Kasimir Boytsov's reign and has managed to remain in his position as Chief Risk Officer for almost a decade. He was the one to originally recommend Lyudmila for a position at Necropolis. His background as an officer of SPOK, [[Pluto|Pluto's]] governing body, is thought to have shaped his sharp instincts and keen sense of planning, and prior to the company's rebranding is credited with having fended the wolves from Necropolis for years prior. Detractors consider his continued presence merely due to his familial relationship with Lyudmila Zavodskoi, which she has roundly dismissed as baseless rumours originating from lingering nostalgia. He lives on [[Moroz]] along with his immediate family and his cousin.<br />
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===Branches===<br />
<br />
'''Nova Luxembourg, [[Moroz]], Mira Sancta:''' The Dominian branch can be found near the city centre, prominently overlooking the Court of Chalser. Residing in what was once a bank, the recently constructed grandiose exterior - that despite appearances can shrug off almost any punishment - encloses the administrative heart of the corporation, and throughout the building, security is known to be incredibly tight. Once just focused on Dominian operations, it has since rapidly expanded, becoming Zavodskoi Interstellar's main headquarters, tripling in size. The move brought with it a large amount of manufacturing plants, located across the Empire of Dominia - revitalizing the megacorporation's interest in the region.<br />
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'''Tolyatti, Soviet Union, [[Earth]], [[Sol]]:''' The previous headquarters of Zavodskoi Interstellar can be found in Tolyatti. The skyscraper complex consisted of three Zavodskoi buildings, a Kumar Arms building, and a ConTec building. The complex was especially austere and compact, mostly as a result of socialist influences during its construction. Today, the Tolyatti Headquarters are abandoned, thanks to the collapse of the Solarian Alliance and Zavodskoi Interstellar's move to Mira Sancta. The Solarian Department of Defense has, according to rumors, floated the idea of repurposing the former headquarters as a command centre for the Solarian Army.<br />
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'''Cape Town, Union of South Africa, Earth, Sol:''' The Cape Town branch sits on the edge of a small cliff, overlooking the ocean. Home to the headquarters of Ingkom, the Cape Town building is a sleek, modernist building with distinctive arched rooves. It is surrounded by several shuttle pads and hangars, some which provide direct transport to the Gagaringrad branch on Luna. The Cape Town branch continues to operate, despite Zavodskoi Interstellar's move to Mira Sancta, mostly due to the building being rented from the Solarian Alliance, instead of owned by the megacorporation.<br />
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'''Gagaringrad, [[Luna]], Sol:''' Gagaringrad's Zavodskoi headquarters is the corporations center of operations for the Alliance, and consists of a black obelisk building on the outskirts of the city's dome, and looks more a fortified bunker than an office building, a fact that is not helped by the installed defensive armaments and high security presence. It is set behind winding alleyways and few good parking spaces, and possesses many subterranean basement levels leftover from its time as a Necropolis building. Much of these levels are locked by clearance level, with speculation and conspiracy surrounding what may await inside them.<br />
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'''Mendell City, [[Biesel]], [[Tau Ceti]]:''' The Mendell City branch situated within District 10 was renovated in 2462, shortly before the unveiling of the [[Stellar Corporate Conglomerate]]. It is constructed in the style of Soviet Classicism, said to be designed to Lyudmila Zavodskoi's personal tastes. With its Corinthian pillars, primarily stone and concrete materials, and tall, spindly central tower, the building is remarkably distinct from other buildings in Mendell's skyline.<br />
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==Divisions==<br />
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=== Security ===<br />
While officially one division, and the smallest one at that, Zavodskoi’s Security Division is composed of two separate wings that rarely overlap or exchange employees; the civilian/corporate security wing and the paramilitary wing.<br />
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==== Civilian Wing ====<br />
Zavodskoi's civilian/corporate security wing is among the most well known in the spur, and has a reputation for professionalism that delivers results. Many of the new recruits originate from the [[Empire of Dominia]], whether they be Imperial frontiersmen looking to pay off their blood debt or young nobles looking for career experience before they take on the duties expected of their station. Being directly employed with Zavodskoi security involves escorting logistics vessels (usually hired by [[Orion Express]] or nation-states with fledgling militaries), stationing around research facilities, guarding other corporate facilities, event security, reinforcing local police forces, and, in some cases, acting as cybersecurity and forensics experts. It is the face of the corporation, and what it is most well known for. As a result, the corporation has an almost fanatical obsession with maintaining an extremely high standard of professionalism within this wing, for the greater good of the company. Employees who don’t meet this standard may find themselves transferred to less prestigious posts, or otherwise hidden away, if not outright fired.<br />
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This wing has found a significant amount of work with the [[MCPD]] and other police departments around the spur since the onset of the [[Phoron|scarcity]] as crime continues to rise along with civil unrest, stretching the capacities of local police forces to their limits. In [[Mendell City]] especially, it has become just as common to see a Zavodskoi Officer patrolling down a street as it is a state police officer. Those assigned to reinforce the [[MCPD]] are fully deputized to act as Law Enforcement Officers of the Republic, and are granted sweeping authority over Mendell City Residents; a level of authority that officers are expected to remain professional with. Officers who make mistakes or overstep their boundaries are made examples of, usually being fired if not arrested for abuse of their position. However, more and more brutal methods of maintaining order are being authorized with every passing day - the scarcity shows no sign of stopping and quality of life continues to drop - as crime spikes and civil unrest flares up consistently. Given their obsession with maintaining a spotless, professional image, Zavodskoi Officers assigned to [[Mendell City]] are now often issued separate uniforms lacking any emblems besides the logo of the [[MCPD]] and told not to wear clothing with Zavodskoi's emblem on it. After all - it's hard to maintain that image if there's media of your officers with your logo coming out to break kneecaps whenever violence spills into one of the nicer districts.<br />
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==== Paramilitary Wing ====<br />
In contrast to the growing civilian/corporate security wing, much of Zavodskoi's paramilitary wing, and the large-scale operations they conducted, has begun to be folded into Falerio Security Services, with new recruits largely being Jadraners and Morozian secondaries. That said, Zavodskoi’s paramilitary wing is still active, having the second highest operation count of all the SCCs corporations, and focuses on small, elite teams of operatives - each team varying in size from five members to fifteen. Commonly referred to as “Kill Teams” by the public - due to their reputation for targeted assisination operations on [[Mictlan]] during the Peacekeeper Mandate (these teams were also accused of murdering former prime minister Frost) - the actuality of the matter is they are Zavodskoi’s go to problem solvers for any situation if other options fail, and have an intense amount of training to match. Sometimes teams will operate together, sometimes they’ll act alone, just as sometimes they’ll act with the permission of the local government, and sometimes they won’t. If Zavodskoi needs a problem solved anywhere, these teams are who they call, and given Zavodskoi’s obsession with their image (alongside the fact that these teams often do VERY illegal things) discretion is valued over professionalism; members of this wing expected to take what they see and do on the job to the grave, having NDAs to match. As a result of their confidentiality, mission profile, and intense training, it is unheard of for employees of this wing to transfer to the civilian/corporate wing. On the flipside, it is only exceedingly rare for an employee of the civilian/corporate wing to transfer to the paramilitary wing - a security officer who displays the right aptitude and impresses the right people has a shot at it.<br />
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=== Shipbuilding/Engineering ===<br />
Competing with Hephaestus Industries in the field with considerable malice, and for centuries, Zavodskoi's subsidiary Ingkom is their most recent attempt to force the Industrial Titan to give up more of the shipbuilding market share, specifically in the vein of military shipbuilding. A recent acquisition, one made after Lyudmilla’s ascension to CEO, this gambit has only really seen success in the Empire of Dominia, where Ingkom supplies a majority of the vessels used by the Imperial Navy, and nowhere else. The rest of the spur would still prefer to get Hephaestus to build the warships and then put Zavodskoi guns on them - much to the frustration of both corporations who would like to hurt the other's bottom line. However, until then, especially in the midst of the scarcity, the corporations are forced to live with this state of affairs - for if Hephaestus makes its ships incompatible with Zavodskoi arms, or the other way around - both would lose the defense contracts they value so highly, and no-one would buy from either corporation.<br />
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=== Military Manufacturing ===<br />
Zavodskoi is the premier manufacturer of military equipment in the [[Orion Spur]], considered even more prolific in the field than Necropolis Industries was previously, and have a stranglehold on the market. Any entity, from nations to other megacorporations, will often find themselves purchasing military equipment from Zavodskoi, or one its subsidiaries, such as Kumar Arms. Zavodskoi does this at a level and scale no other can match - in terms of total output, Zavodskoi produces more than ninety percent of all military goods in the known galaxy - the big exception being the Serene Republic of Elyra, who only has about thirty percent of their military equipment from the corporation. Though their mass manufacturing might give the idea of cheaply made, low quality weapons, Zavodskoi armaments are known to be extremely reliable, easy to use, and generally better overall than their competitors, no matter the scale. While [[Hephaestus Industries]] has attempted to compete with Zavodskoi in the ship weapons manufacturing department, their lack of establishment in the field means Zavodskoi continues to outstrip their sales.<br />
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==== Military Robotics and AI ====<br />
A specialized wing under their military manufacturing division, Zavodskoi is the leading developer of [[Synthetics|military AI and military robots]]. Whether it’s the basic machine learning algorithm used in most scanning systems to filter out white noise and highlight faint signals, or the massively powerful, fully sentient AI found on warships, if it’s used for a military application, it’s probably made by Zavodskoi. This wing has been hit harder than any other division or wing by the ongoing phoron scarcity, as due to the sheer level of data transfers, phoron is a prerequisite material for this. As a result of these inherent expenses, even prior to the scarcity, the integration of Zavodskoi military AI and systems was always an expensive one, so regular soldiers only ever saw basic systems and AI - basic for the contemporary spur but still leagues beyond what they had prior to phoron - and the more advanced intelligences of the contemporary spur were reserved for bigger things, such as ships. In the midsts of the scarcity - it’s become even more expensive, but still a necessity if one wishes to retain a competitive edge.<br />
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Kumar Arms, on the other hand, is one of the leading producers in combat mechsuits and hardsuits. It supplies the Solarian, Dominian, and Biesellite militaries, and makes a tidy profit off private military contractors in the [[PMCG]] and beyond. Common features include personal shielding, advanced inbuilt intelligences (or in the case of Dominia, systems) hardpoint-mounted lasers and ballistic cannons, and reinforced plating.<br />
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=== Genetics ===<br />
A now defunct department, Necropolis began branching into the field of biological experimentation in the 2200s, after the Interstellar War. Massively outstripped by [[Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals]] in age, expertise, and size, the biosciences division of the company was an awkward tacked-on branch that mainly fuelled bioweapon, toxin, and combat stimulant research, with a small contingent of genetic enhancement experiments being performed under top-secret regulation. When the company became Zavodskoi, the cloistered gene enhancement branch was opened mostly to House Volvalaad researchers from the [[Empire of Dominia]], assisting the House in their attempts to perfect their geneboosting technique. A small group of pre-Zavodskoi biologists also remain with the company, though their postings are seen as considerably less prestigious than the aforementioned bioweapons and gene enhancement researchers.<br />
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==Subsidiaries==<br />
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===Kumar Arms===<br />
<i>"The best defense is a Kumar offense."</i><br />
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'''Chief Executive Officer:''' Freia Salsnivna, b. 2438<br />
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Kumar Arms is considered the backbone of Zavodskoi Interstellar, founded in the Soviet Union by Ilya Kumarov, a former Sukhoi engineer, in 2114. Primarily an arms manufacturing company, they saw a quick burst of growth during the interstellar war - one which was overshadowed by the massive growth of Necropolis. After this burst of growth, however, a series of poor financial decisions led the company to be acquired by Necropolis Industries in 2295, one of the last eastern arms manufacturing companies to be consolidated. The brand remained purchased, but Kumar Arms as a business gradually stagnated and became a shell company for Necropolis to use for shipping purposes. Once Necropolis became Zavodskoi Interstellar, however, Kumar Arms was revived and refurbished, becoming a massive arms manufacturer throughout the Spur, only beaten by Zavodskoi themselves. Currently, it is headquartered in St. Petersburg on Earth, though there are whispers of plans to move the primary headquarters and manufacturing centre to Alterim Obirava.<br />
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==== Major Products ====<br />
* '''M8 Service Pistol:''' Potentially the most-produced handgun in the modern Spur, the M8 is the standard service pistol of the Solarian Armed Forces, most Solarian police forces, and most mercenary detachments based in the Alliance. The M8 is a versatile design with dozens of variations, ranging from the Konyanger K8 to an alleged suppressed and caseless variant used by the Solarian Interstellar Intelligence Bureau.<br />
* '''M469 Assault Rifle:''' The iconic standard-issue rifle of the Solarian Armed Forces since the replacement of the earlier M376, the M469 is a durable and reliable weapon with countless variations. it is the most-produced assault rifle in the modern Orion Spur, and will likely remain that way for decades to come. Previously produced by Zavodskoi, the Alliance has since bought out the patent and licensed it to a variety of domestic producers such as the San Colette Interstellar Armaments Company, or CAISC.<br />
* '''2557 super-heavy pistol:''' The Kumar Arms 2557 is a newly designed type of "super-heavy" pistol. It features a light-weight polymer pistol grip, a bulky plasteel frame and an extra long barrel. It is chambered in the newly developed .599 Kumar Super rifle cartridge. Despite designed for rifle use, the newly developed propellants allows this cartridge for use in the Kumar Arms 2557, upping the stopping power significantly.<br />
* '''40mm rotary cannon "Francisca":''' Developed in 2461, the Francisca or "Frankie" rotary cannon is a ship battery designed for small to medium-sized ships. It can be loaded with full metal jacket, fragmentation, and armour-piercing ammunition, and is deadly to unarmoured small-craft.<br />
* '''90mm flak cannon "Grauwolf":''' For medium to large-sized vessels, the Grauwolf is a flak cannon capable of battering even cruiser-class vessels with a wide spread of salvo. Some larger courier vessels have equipped a Grauwolf to batter flocks of space carp, small meteor belts, and dust storms that threaten the integrity of their cargo. The Grauwolf's design has been spoofed many times, and has a cousin in the Xion Industrial 90mm cannon called the "Alberich."<br />
* '''180mm rotary cannon "Boudica":''' A medium-sized laser rotary cannon designed with similar function to the Francisca, notable for managing to do what the Francisca cannot and severely weaken the hull of unarmoured ships.<br />
* '''ZA-98/5 200mm naval gun "Lammergeier":''' A relatively old, and recently modernized, cannon designed for corvette-class vessels at the smallest, the Lammergeier is mounted on small Imperial Fleet vessels as a main battery and larger vessels as a secondary battery. Smaller than its 406mm cousin, the Longbow, and the Imperial Fleet's 608mm ZA-32/2, the Thunderer, the Lammergeier is a useful and adaptable weapon.<br />
* '''406mm high-velocity cannon "Longbow":''' An upgraded version of its "Ballista" predecessor, the Longbow is one of the largest cannons in Zavodskoi's arsenal, designed for frigate-class vessels and larger. With easier maintenance, a larger payload, and a more streamlined loading process, it has become the weapon of choice for several militaries across the Orion Spur.<br />
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===Confiance Technologies===<br />
<i>“Have confidence in Confiance.”</i><br />
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'''Chief Executive Officer:''' Ilya Moules-Polorov, b. 2422<br />
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Founded in Harmony City, [[Luna]] in 2427, Confiance Technologies (or ConTec) remain a successful company focusing on AI and synthetic component manufacturing. Acquired by Zavodskoi shortly after the company's renaming, ConTec was divided into two branches; a military wing and a commercial wing with the military wing being folded into Zavodskoi proper shortly after, leaving only the commercial wing remaining. ConTec's commercial wing, now its only wing, produces non-military equipment, including laptops, prothesis, watches, and PDAs, and operates across the Spur.<br />
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==== Major Brands ====<br />
* '''Centurion Prosthetics and Augmentations:''' Zavodskoi's iconic prosthetics line, usually offered to Zavodskoi employees at a discount in lieu of purchasing prosthetics from NanoTrasen, Zeng-Hu, or Hephaestus. The most recognizable look of Centurion prosthetics are their smooth, matte grey and red limb prosthetics, though the company also sells "realistic" prosthetics to Imperial Zavodskoi employees who prefer to keep the nature of their disabilities less obvious. Centurion synthskin, in reality, is simply soft rubber; it is not as reputable as the realistic prosthetics produced by Jeonshi Biotechnics, though it can be mistaken for a real limb from a distance.<br />
* '''Midnight Business Technology:''' Produced by the commercial wing of ConTec, the Midnight line of watches advertises itself as stylish yet cheap and functional workwear, mostly for Secondaries and Ma'zals in the [[Empire of Dominia]].<br />
* '''Legate Laptops:''' A series of laptops produced by commercial ConTec, known for being very heavy and very robust both on the software and hardware end. Prior to 2462, Legate was the official producer of laptops for the [[Solarian Armed Forces]].<br />
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===Ingkom===<br />
<i>"Pride and prosperity to all."</i><br />
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'''Chief Executive Officer:''' Hanru De Beers, b. 2403<br />
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Ingkom, or Bedryfsingenieurswese Kommissie, is a primarily engineering-focused subsidiary of Zavodskoi Interstellar, founded in South Africa, Earth in 2099. It has a long intertwined history with South Africa and its aggressive expansion into Sub-Saharan Africa. Initially, a state-owned enterprise tasked with rebuilding the destroyed infrastructure of Botswana, Zimbabwe, Lesotho and Eswatini after several successful military campaigns had rendered them territories. Early successes experienced by Ingkom resulted in its quick rise to importance within the South African economy, mostly due to reconstructions that allowed resource extraction operations to resume. The majority of the developed regions of these newly acquired territories were a direct result of Ingkom, and after sanctions had been lifted, allowed them to prosper and expand into the international market - mostly through Zavodskoi’s acquisition of the corporation as a subsidiary in 2463.<br />
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==== Major Products ====<br />
* '''''Uriel''-class Destroyer:''' ''Uriel''-class destroyers are corporate ships usually used for the transport of fighting forces, weapons, or other Zavodskoi products that require rapid deployment. During the Peacekeeper Mandate on [[Mictlan]], several Uriel-classes made rapid stops between [[Tau Ceti]] and Mictlan to deploy [[Tau Ceti Armed Forces]] and corporate auxiliary personnel to the planet. It comes fitted with a warp drive, almost never hosting a bluespace drive due to the expense involved, and as such Ingkom employs the finest pilots for these vessels. Losses of these vessels are considered quite serious and potentially crippling to Zavodskoi's supply line. Despite being classed as a destroyer, an ''Uriel''-class is more akin to a frigate in its displacement.<br />
* '''''Jinxiang''-class Destroyer:''' Produced in collaboration with the Zhurong Imperial Naval Arsenal, the ''Jinxiang''-class are a major component of the Imperial Fleet's screening forces. Featuring a surprisingly comfortable (if not quite spacious) area for living quarters, a compact life support system, and room for several point-defense gunneries, it continues to be a relevant design. Like most Imperial Fleet vessels, it is heavier and slower than comparative vessels of the same class -- an issue when dealing with more agile targets.<br />
* '''''Mumbai''-class Fast Battleship:''' Originally pioneered by Necropolis and built for the [[Solarian Armed Forces]], the ''Mumbai''-class was envisioned as a patrol leader that would be able to respond to all incursions with relatively swift speed for a flagship. While it did not have the armor or weaponry of a conventional battleship, it was a potent threat to any non-capital craft. Deemed a failure due to an ineffective cost-to-kill ratio against smaller, more agile pirate fleets, most ''Mumbai''-class vessels were assigned to forces in the Middle and Outer Ring. Many of these, such as the SAFV ''Toronto'' and the SAFV ''Chicago'', were appropriated by the rogue fleets of the Solarian Navy during the Collapse of 2463. Of note, the ''Toronto'' has been seized from the League of Independent Corporate-Free Systems mostly-intact after the siege of [[San Colette]] in 2465, and was refitted and rechristened as the SAFV ''Iqaluit'' by Ingkom and the Solarian Navy -- a rare example of a member of the class still in active service.<br />
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=== Falerio Security Services ===<br />
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'''Chief Executive Officer:''' Filomena di Falerio, b. 2398<br />
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Falerio Security Services was founded by [[Novi Jadran|Novi Jadranic]] Duchess Filomena di Falerio to continue the work of the Eridanian PMCs she had once hired to secure her holdings, using the (comparatively cheaper) local populace. Since its dealings with and acquisition by Zavodskoi Interstellar, it has grown into a capable contractor that works in the interests of both Duchess di Falerio and the corporation. Falerio Security Services found itself made up almost exclusively of Ma’zals (non-[[Moroz|Morozian]] citizens of the Empire) for a time, most of which had prior service in the [[Dominian Imperial Military|Imperial Army]]. Their primary duties were, outside of security of Falerio family assets, and the protection of Zavodskoi assets, within the Empire, though efforts were made to branch out in service of the Great Houses (particularly Caladius) and outside of the Empire. More recently however, Zavodskoi has begun using Falerio in a different way, as a paramilitary subsidiary; cutting most of their own security division’s paramilitary wing and transferring them to Falerio, the corporation that was once made up on exclusively Ma’zals is now made up of peoples and species from across the spur, not including positronics. As a result, Falerio has reorganized, creating a paramilitary wing, which contains all manner of species and people, and a civilin/corporate security wing, which is still primarily Ma’zals and continues the original work of the corporation. However, the paramilitary wing is significantly larger than the corporate security one, and is getting more attention as time goes on - leading to a fear that the corporate wing will be completely cut eventually. Until then however, as Falerio grows through word of mouth, many Army officers and old-blood nobility of the Houses Strelitz and Zhao are concerned that di Falerio's interests may jeopardise the military loyalty of Jadranics, and some have even started whispering that the large paramilitary force under her control is a threat to the empire. Corporate Security members employed by Falerio can be recognized by their distinctive uniforms and headgear bearing "IK" -- the initials for "Emperor Keeser" in Jadranic Common.<br />
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==== History ====<br />
Perhaps due to the prior presence of Xanu Defense Services and Jackal Incorporated, PMCs originating in the nations of their political rivals, the Empire has always been reluctant to branch into the [[Private Military Contracting Group]]. Duchess Filomena held no such reservations; when large copper and gold veins were discovered by villages in her holdings, she hired Ringspire and Eagle Corp to secure her holdings and push out the villagers who had lived a relatively unmolested life far away from her manse. When the dust had settled, Filomena quickly realised that Ringspire in particular was becoming very expensive and too aggressive for her tastes; evidence had come to light that the contractors may have been stealing ore for their own profit, and the casualties they left in their wake was becoming too much for even the Department of Colonial Affairs to ignore.<br />
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Filomena decided to take a cue from the Eridanian Golden Fist and create her own private contracting group. Falerio Security Services targeted Ma'zals both young and old, those who had yet to pay off their Mo'ri'zal ("blood debt", the Empire's form of taxation) and who could be relied upon for loyalty to a cause. This caught the attention of Kamilla Strelitz, who offered to acquire the company in exchange for profit and reach that Duchess Filomena might not have had otherwise. Falerio Security Services was purchased by and became an official subsidiary of Zavodskoi, being able to take full advantage of its weaponry and resources that the Imperial Army often did not receive in full. That a relatively minor noble was able to secure such a key position in Dominia's closest megacorporation, as well as drawing away what were seen as once-loyal potential recruits to the Army, is a source of discontent among officers of the military and Novi Jadran's Imperial Mandate alike.<br />
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== Corporate Relations ==<br />
=== [[Stellar Corporate Conglomerate]] ===<br />
The newly founded Conglomerate’s ties with Zavodskoi are blatant, with a newly founded Corporate Asset Protection Fleet bearing weapons, munitions and equipment of Zavodskoi make across the board. Often remarked as having soft power and not hard power, the SCC, under the direction of Miranda Trasen, is moving to change this. While the Corporate Asset Protection Fleet is not much in terms of hard power - being significantly bigger than previous asset protection fleets, but still not a fully fledged military force - the solution to hard power can be found in the newly formed Tau Ceti Armed Forces, which have been rapidly expanding and militarizing since their inception. At the forefront of this is Zavodskoi, from high-end starship pieces to antique small arms, Zavodskoi provides it all, making them a key player in the Conglomerate’s military forces, both private and state controlled. This newfound niche alongside rising civil unrest and international tension has led to a resurgence of its presence galaxy-wide, and cooperation with the other megacorporations has proven very profitable.<br />
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===[[Einstein Engines]]===<br />
Einstein Engines and Zavodskoi have a fairly neutral relationship - though the two do compete in the robotics sector, Zavodskoi has purchased many Einstein-made warp drives for its vessels over the years, and the two have both had generous supply contracts with the Solarian military in the past. In the modern day, Zavodskoi has lost a great deal of these contracts, while Einstein continues to hold many highly valuable government and military contracts - a factor which contributed to Zavodskoi's withdrawal of much of its Solarian business. In spite of this, it continues to purchase warp drives and positronic brains from Einstein frequently, due to the rising cost of phoron fuel and the easy availability of helium-3 from Zavodskoi's new home in the Empire of Dominia.<br />
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===[[Hephaestus Industries]]===<br />
Hephaestus and Zavodskoi famously have the worst relationship between any two corporations within the Orion Spur, with roots of their rivalry going back as far as prior to the discovery of the warp. It is also the most publicly known, as the two corporations have famously been embroiled in dozens of public scandals with each other. As time went on the animosity between the two megacorporations only grew, as they competed extensively in industry, manufacturing, robotics and engineering fields for decades, boarding on centuries. All types of sabotage and espionage are common between Hephaestus and Zavodskoi, with both corporations having extensively bankrolled privateers, saboteurs and other plausibly deniable agents to attack their rivals. As Zavodskoi has expanded into the Empire of Dominia and Hephaestus into the Izweski Hegemony, the Sparring Sea and Badlands have become the two most recent, and largest, battlegrounds for the megacorporations, with corporate-funded pirates commonly targeting one another's vessels. In the present day, beyond the use of privateers, Zavodskoi has often been accused of funding radical anti-Hephaestus groups within the Izweski Hegemony, most notably the Champions of Moghes - a terrorist organization which has remained suspiciously well-equipped and well-informed of Hephaestus operations. Hephaestus, meanwhile, has often been suspected of bankrolling various Dominian rebel groups in recent years, in the hopes of weakening Zavodskoi's large investment in the Empire's development. Shared membership in the Stellar Corporate Conglomerate has done nothing to quell the two giants' bitter feud,, which has become a source of constant headaches for Miranda and the SCC, who have had to threaten to economically break both companies multiple times just so they keep their conflict out of the public perception and grudgingly cooperate with SCC business.<br />
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===[[Idris Incorporated]]===<br />
Zavodskoi and Idris have been frequent competitors in the fields of security and IPC manufacturing, leading to a long-running mutual rivalry between the two corporation. Lyudmila Zavodskoi is known to have a personal distaste for Alex Mason, and Zavodskoi has frequently undercut Idris security operations in the Sol Alliance and Republic of Biesel. Zavodskoi employees are strongly discouraged from using Idris financial services, which NanoTrasen has done its best to encourage as many Zavodskoi employees in Biesel opt to make use of NanoTrasen banks instead. Idris has marketed its security division extensively as a high-class security option, with unstated implications of the marketing casting other corporations' security as little better than thuggish mercenaries, which Zavodskoi unsuccessfully attempted to sue Idris over. Though their rivalry is not as intense as that of Zavodskoi and Hephaestus, the two corporations remain on far from friendly terms.<br />
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===[[NanoTrasen]]===<br />
Zavodskoi and NanoTrasen maintain a decent relationship, with little open conflict between the two corporations. Since the beginning of the phoron scarcity, however, Zavodskoi has taken full advantage of NanoTrasen's waning power in the Republic of Biesel, expanding its arms industry into the Republic. Since the formation of the Tau Ceti Armed Forces and the negotiation of several new supply contracts with Biesel's government, Zavodskoi has managed to take a great deal of business from NanoTrasen - seizing NT's position as the Republic's main weapons supplier. Though NanoTrasen still holds onto their original contract for the Tau Ceti Foreign Legion, the Minutemen and Republican Fleet are both almost entirely outfitted with Zavodskoi-made weapons, armor, and voidsuits. NanoTrasen has attempted to counteract this influence through the recent appointment of Nathan Trasen as Secretary of Defense - but even with a Trasen in such a prestigious position, Zavodskoi has still managed to secure a solid grasp on the Republic's military industry. NanoTrasen has increased funding to Nexus Corporate Security several times in an effort to use their newly-formed PMC to undermine Zavodskoi's security business in the Corporate Reconstruction Zone, with some measure of success.<br />
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===[[Orion Express]]===<br />
Zavodskoi contributed large portions of its logistics division to Orion Express, and has maintained a decent relationship with the logistics corporation. Though their Solarian business has been scaled back substantially, Zavodskoi still relies on Orion vessels for transport of its goods in the Alliance, and Orion has been known to favor Zavodskoi security when outside force is required for particularly troublesome work. Orion's ties to Hephaestus are the largest source of tension between the two corporations, and Zavodskoi is rumored to have attempted to seed several of its own agents within Orion-Hephaestus joint operations in order to gather intelligence on their rival.<br />
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===[[Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals]]===<br />
When Zavodskoi Interstellar was still known as Necropolis Industries, it was Zeng-Hu's major rival in the genetics sector, leading to fierce competition between the two corporations. Rumors of sabotage and corporate espionage were commonplace, and the theft of company secrets was commonplace on both sides. Following the rebrand to Zavodskoi Interstellar, however, the corporation has significantly cut back on its genetics division, leaving Zeng-Hu as a mostly unchallenged monopoly in the field. With the two megacorporations no longer in direct competition, the relationship between them has warmed significantly, with Zavodskoi choosing instead to redouble its efforts against its main rival, Hephaestus Industries. Though the two do still compete in the robotics sector, so far this has been far less of a source of tension between them.<br />
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== Other Relations ==<br />
<br />
=== [[IPC|Synthetics]] ===<br />
While Necropolis Industries has always had synthetics, the rebranding to Zavodskoi Interstellar brought with it the very marketable Z.I. line, and saw the increase in production and distribution of synthetic workers. Zavodskoi employs their Z.I.s as precise, dextrous labour in machining, manufacturing and blanket industrial work. Many stubborn advocates of hand-crafting and several subsidiaries oriented around quality have made large steps towards vilifying these robotic mechanics, claiming that the “organic touch” is the key to quality. Some Zavodskoi employees have expressed similar sentiment, seeing the proliferation of synthetics as threatening their position and livelihood; official statements from Jaco Du Plessis have countered with Zavodskoi employees only needing to worry for their position if they do work of subpar quality.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, the company has refused all suggestions from the Empire of Dominia to cut down on its synthetic workforce, only refraining from its usage to comply with laws in the Empire itself. To Imperial citizens going abroad, Zavodskoi offers in-depth synthetic sensitivity courses, designed to acclimate Tribunalists to working with IPCs.<br />
<br />
=== [[Empire of Dominia]] ===<br />
<br />
While Necropolis Industries made limited attempts to branch further into Imperial territories, the ascension of Countess Kamilla Strelitz to Chief Security Officer has brought with it a new entanglement with the fledgling Empire. Dominia's own state corporations and Great Houses have all, in some way, made deals with Zavodskoi, and Ingkom's collaborations with Zhurong Naval Armaments have brought a massive increase in productivity to the Imperial war machine. The company plays a strong role in acclimating Imperial citizens to non-Imperial culture and sending them abroad, serving as Dominia's strongest connection to the rest of the [[Orion Spur]]. Meanwhile, Lyudmila Zavodskoi and her family remain close with the Royal Family, and she enjoys a seemingly close relationship with Crown Princess Priscilla.<br />
<br />
=== [[Sol Alliance]] ===<br />
<br />
Prior to the Solarian Corporate Authority's establishment and the mass nationalisation of corporate assets, Necropolis Industries was one of the primary weapon suppliers to the [[Solarian Armed Forces]], and Zavodskoi Interstellar continues that tradition. Despite the chaos ensuing form the nationalization of corporate assets, including the accusation by Solarian Intelligence Agencies that it was Zavodskoi who murdered former Prime Minister Frost, when the dust settled Zavodskoi was still there, with a majority of its manufacturing facilities, patents, and experience in manufacturing the tools of war still belonging to it. Being realistic, if a state wants arms for its army, it needs Zavodskoi Interstellar. So despite some small withdrawals, Zavodskoi remains basically just doing what Necropolis did before it, selling arms to the Alliance - as well as everyone else, of course. <br />
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{{Navbox Lore}}</div>The Strykerhttps://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=Sandbox2:The_Stryker&diff=38304Sandbox2:The Stryker2025-10-30T14:25:41Z<p>The Stryker: </p>
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{{Template:Navbox Corporations}}<br />
{{Infobox Corporation<br />
|headercolor = #920a0a <!--Can be left blank for grey header--><br />
|textcolor = white <!--Can be left blank for black text--><br />
|name = Zavodskoi Interstellar<br />
|logo = Zavodskoi_Interestellar<br />
|headquarters = Nova Luxembourg, [[Moroz]], [[Empire of Dominia]]<br />
|slogan = Even one matters on the battlefield.<br />
|languages = Tradeband, Tau Ceti Basic, Sol Common<br />
|ceo = [[Notable Humans#Lyudmila Zavodskoi|Lyudmila Zavodskoi]]<br />
|colors = <span style="color:#363c43">Black (#363c43),</span> <span style="color:#920a0a">red (#920a0a),</span> <span style="color:#7a6347">brown (#7a6347)</span><br />
|founded = 2259 (as Necropolis Industries)<br />
2462 (as Zavodskoi Interstellar)<br />
|founder = Yefim Dementyev (as Necropolis Industries)<br />
Lyudmila Zavodskoi (as Zavodskoi Interstellar)<br />
|regions =<br />
<br><br />
* [[Sol Alliance]]<br />
* [[Empire of Dominia]]<br />
* [[Republic of Biesel]]<br />
* [[Coalition of Colonies]]<br />
* [[Republic of Elyra]]<br />
|}}<br />
<br />
'''Zavodskoi Interstellar''', formerly Necropolis Industries, is the weapon’s development and manufacturing megacorporation of the Orion Spur. Originally founded in 2259 as a mishmash of corporations, the Zavodskoi of today is in a very different industry, instead developing, manufacturing, and then distributing all the tools of war; from light to heavy weaponry, space vessel weapons, ship-building, aircraft, ground vehicles, combat spacesuits, and even military software. While the business of war remains their main focus as a corporation, Zavodskoi also has a significant Security Solutions Branch, split further into civilian and paramilitary departments, the former known for their professionalism. Lastly, they also produce the Z.I. line of positronics, used by all branches of the corporation, but with an emphasis on use in private security and military contracting. <br />
<br />
Since the beginning of the [[Phoron|phoron scarcity]], Zavodskoi Interstellar has seen, alongside the myriad of issues in manufacturing, research, and weapons development, the scarcity brought, a surprisingly rise in relevance and profits, as civil and international unrest continue to grow across the Orion Spur. As the scarcity continues and tensions - both those between nationstates and corporations - grow, Zavodskoi has made a fortune acting as a merchant of death for all parties; as fighting forces of all kinds continue to grow larger and larger, Zavodskoi is there selling any willing customer whatever tools of war they require. Most notably, its continued relationship with the [[Empire of Dominia]] has earned the corporation an unexpected pretty penny from defense contracts for both the Imperial Army and Imperial Navy, alongside an uncontested market within the Empire, as no other corporation has been able to establish a real foothold there. <br />
{{TOC Hidden}}<br />
== Corporate Affairs ==<br />
<br />
=== History ===<br />
<center>''"Violence is a historical constant, stretching back to the very beginning of every species recorded history, to when they first arose out of the mud. All we do is make that inherent instinct easier to accomplish."'' - An Unknown Necropolis Executive giving an internal speech, ~2380.<br />
<br />
</center><br />
Necropolis Industries was founded in 2259 by Yefim Dementyev, a former aerospace engineer within the Soviet Union, the final step in conglomerating the defense, heavy industry, and medical corporations within the Soviet sphere under one banner (one of the reasons for their operations on [[Pluto]]), primarily to avoid them being bought out by competitors from other regions, such as [[Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals]] and [[Hephaestus Industries]]. While buyout was avoided, the newly formed Necropolis Industries was late to the party, as their competitors had been formed almost a century earlier, and established themselves within their respective markets of the wider [[Solarian Alliance]] at a level Necropolis could not compete with; until just a year later. In 2260 the [[Sol Alliance History|Solarian economy crashed]], and along with it both Zeng-Hu and [[Hephaestus Industries]]. The rival corporations to Necropolis were forced to desperately cut costs, shutter facilities, even close entire branches, as [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bailout the government bailed them out to stay solvent], allowing Necropolis to move into the markets they had abandoned, and in those that the established players didn’t leave, compete with them. They moved quickly, taking much of the defense manufacturing industry from [[Hephaestus Industries]], and a significant portion of the genetics industry from [[Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals]]. This move would be the start of a rivalry that would last centuries.<br />
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The outbreak and years of the [[Timeline|Interstellar War]] saw Dementyev oversee the rapid expansion of Necropolis, opening hundreds of new facilities every year to research, develop, and manufacture the tools of war; most notably, arms of all kind (small arms to shipborne weapons), combat voidsuits, helicopters, fighters, combat vehicles, and mechs. If it was a piece of equipment used on the battlefield during the Interstellar War, it was probably manufactured by Necropolis, with limited exceptions. By the time the [[Timeline|Treaty of Xansan]] was signed, Necropolis was the largest “Merchant of Death” in the known galaxy. They manufactured more than ninety percent of all weapons within the Alliance, and over half of all the equipment used by the [[Solarian Armed Forces]].<br />
<br />
However, as [[Timeline|relative peace followed the largest-scale conflict in human history]], the board of directors turned their gaze to a yet-untouched (by them) field; biological experimentation. Though [[Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals]] was unambiguously more adept and well-established than their competitor, Necropolis had been able to wrest away some of the market when Zeng-Hu was weak, primarily the submarkets of [[Technology|gene therapy, xenobiology, and biological limb replacements]]. Their work in these areas was of brief interest to the wider galactic community, and while official correspondence pointed to a desire to broaden their sphere of influence moving away from solely weapons manufacturing, insiders at the company would later recount that Yefim Dementyev had begun to feel the creeping fear of his own mortality. Rumours would tell that he was obsessed with preserving himself and his legacy, and would use his own resources at any cost to achieve this preservation.<br />
<br />
Dementyev's pursuit would prove unsuccessful as he abruptly died from a septic infection in 2317. His son, Yevgeniy Dementyev, took hold of the company's reins, and would oversee a corporation that almost immediately began struggling. When first contact was made with the [[Skrell]] in 2332, and their subsequent partnership with Zeng-Hu, Necropolis’s rival corporation in the biomedical scene benefited from the advanced knowledge of the Skrell, while Necropolis didn’t. Meanwhile, the demands for Necropolis’s arms were less and less every year, cutting into their profits. However, Yevgeniy stayed at the helm and continued steering the corporation for two decades, until he steered it into one of the most important moments in galactic history..<br />
<br />
In 2352, [[NanoTrasen]] would discover the element [[Phoron]] within the [[Tau Ceti|Romanavich cloud of Tau Ceti]], and Necropolis had been researching energy-based weapons for a long time; this discovery would allow for more powerful, longer-lasting, and better energy-based weapons; not to mention the massive applications it had for the creation of [[Synthetics|Military AI and Systems.]] Necropolis ended up being one of the first corporations to enter into a research & development agreement with NanoTrasen, this time being early to the party, meaning Necropolis got a much better deal than those who would come after. Originally looking to just develop new, more advanced tools of war to sell across the spur, they ended up doing [[Phoron|far more]].<br />
<br />
Necropolis [[Spurian Economy|prospered alongside NanoTrasen and the rest of the spur]], and while it was always the smallest and least profitable of the original seven megacorporations, it still became extravagantly wealthy as the technological revolution which followed phorons discovery in the decades after - known as the phoronic revolution - saw constant technological advancements that Necropolis could employ in defense manufacturing. From communication devices to tanks, and from voidsuits to small arms; for militaries, militias, private security contractors, and asset protection forces, Necropolis was the only corporation offering cutting edge equipment that might make the difference between living and dying in a firefight. It even branched out into cutting edge military specific AI applications. However all of the above required phoron to manufacture. It is during this time, Necropolis would bear witness to the contact with the [[Empire of Dominia]] by the Alliance. The corporation quickly took advantage of the nascent Empire's newness to the galactic stage, and established relations with the Great Houses and Emperor Godwin Keeser himself. From then on, Necropolis and the Empire's intimate ties meant that Necropolis boosted the efforts of not just [[Dominian Imperial Military|Dominia's conquest]], but the efforts of its [[technology|genetic modification]].<br />
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Yet there is one discovery that neither NanoTrasen nor Necropolis speak much about, even today, and that is the discovery of the potential within '''[[Phoron|Diphoron and Phoron Oxides]]''', both colloquially referred to as “[[Phoron|Weapons Grade Phoron]].” What mudders the waters further is a lack of clarity as to when it's far scarier applications were discovered - those applications being the creation of '''[[Phoron|Phoron Warheads and Phoron WMDs]]'''. Contemporarily, these weapons are known to exist and may be the end of the Spur as we know it.<br />
<br />
In 2409, Yevgeniy Dementyev passed down the mantle of chief executive officer to his son, Kasimir Boytsov. While Boytsov was not just a dabbler in genetics and had a keen mind like his father and grandfather, he was reputed for his impulsiveness and stubbornness, refusing to admit when the tides were turning against him. By 2450 Necropolis had become the neglected runner-up of the megacorporations, though it was always the smallest of them all, the valuation of the other major corporate entities was so far above their own, Necropolis was close to not even being compared. It was during this time that an information security operative at the company, Tikhon Zavodskoi, quietly recommended his cousin [[Notable Humans|Lyudmila]] for a position as a weapons researcher. "The woman from [[Pluto]]", as she would soon be called, quickly worked her way up the ranks of the company to become the assistant to the chief security officer, bringing in her own cohorts of associates from Dominia and Sol alike.<br />
<br />
2462 was when change would overwhelm Necropolis, when Boytsov would collapse at a press conference, and fall into a coma. The company was sent into turmoil; Boytsov had never named a proper successor, despite his rapidly advancing age. [[Notable Humans|Lyudmila Zavodskoi]] had become a surprise contender, and her new group of executives, including her cousin Tikhon and the Imperial countess Kamilla Strelitz pushed out the old heads and helped turn Necropolis into rebranded, rebuilt Zavodskoi Interstellar.<br />
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In light of the company's turbulent history, Zavodskoi Interstellar opted to pursue what it knew how to do better than any other megacorporation in the Orion Spur: military equipment. Lymudmilla oversaw a total restructuring of the company, cutting the fat, unprofitable departments and branches, turning inwards to focus on the solid core industries of the corporation, of which there are three. The largest is its classical military-industrial complex, with a massive amount of Spur's military equipment, ranging from infantry small arms to combat hardsuits to vehicles to military AI and much more being produced by Zavodskoi or one of its subsidiaries. Its second is a result of Ingkom, its robust engineering wing; Zavodskoi engineering staff are a common sight throughout the Orion Spur, though their usage within the Solarian Alliance has faltered following the Solarian Collapse of late 2462. The smallest but most public-facing industry is its private security force. Known for their professionalism, Zavodskoi's security wing is one of the most competitive in the Orion Spur. This restructuring would see Zavodskoi’s year over year profits skyrocket, once more being a competitor amongst their megacorporate peers, and continues to be how the company is currently operated.<br />
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=== Influence and Reputation ===<br />
<center>''"For all your Security Solutions!"'' - A common Z.I ad line.<br />
<br />
</center><br />
As a hiring practice, Zavodski Interstellar finds itself poaching highly skilled workers from other megacorporations. Workers with Zavodskoi usually flocked to the company to exploit its high pay - the restructuring that took place in 2462 means the company can offer far higher pay with far more benefits than their competitors, attracting industry experts from across the spur. Although perfecting and producing weapons of war is a task that will never truly be finished, the company is recognized as the uncontested leader in their development. As such, it holds a great deal of sway in almost every corner of the Spur that is only growing as the scarcity continues to worsen.<br />
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In this day and age, Zavodskoi has become the military industrial complex of the entire spur - the merchants of death who sell to both sides of a conflict, and care not for the suffering their creations cause. To have an armed fighting force within the Orion Spur means - with one exception - to rely on Zavodskoi to arm them. The only real exception is the Serene Republic of Elyra, whose military stands alone in not relying on the megacorporation. They pioneer where others do not by developing and manufacturing the highest-quality firearms, or just the biggest and baddest weapons they can muster. The extent of this research dominates every echelon of the corporation, leading to the unified pursuit of maximizing the efficiency of its stock, rather than trying to cover the widest range possible. This business has resulted in an almost freakish obsession by Zavodskoi with maintaining a good reputation, and every employee, down to the lowest, is expected to act extremely professionally.<br />
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However, like the rest of the spur, Zavodskoi’s manufacturing it reliant on phoron. Its energy weapons and other electronic equipment of any kind uses it extensively, and even its standard ballistic firearms need phoron, not directly but through the facilities and machines that produce them. Without phoron, Zavodskoi can’t produce any weapons, weapons systems, or equipment it developed after 2352.<br />
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The only thing that dominates the corporation on every level more than weapons development is a hatred of Hephaestus Industries. The two corporations have a rivalry going back centuries, and it continues in the modern day. While under the umbrella of the SCC, they are forced to work alongside each other, their hatred of each other runs deep, down to the common worker. It is not uncommon for Hephaestus employees to be unjustly harassed by Zavodskoi Security Contractors, nor is it uncommon for Zavodskoi factories to experience “technical difficulties” receiving power from Hephaestus run power grids, and such behavior is tacitly encouraged and rewarded by both corporations as a sign of loyalty; a practice that has seen this hatred only escalate, and some disputes end with severe injuries or even the death of someone involved. <br />
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<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
=== Positronics and Zavodskoi Interstellar ===<br />
In the aftermath of Necropolis Industries' rebranding into Zavodskoi Interstellar, [[Synthetics]] and [[IPC|Positronics]] have become more of a common sight in company facilities outside of the [[Empire of Dominia]]. These Zavodskoi IPCs are however banned from command and leadership positions within Zavodskoi Interstellar due to the corporation's internal policy, which views positronics as a workforce rather than a management force. This ban includes Zavodskoi Interstellar corporate liaisons.<br />
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<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
Newly implemented and with some in the company opposed to their presence, Zavodskoi positronics face systemic fragility within the company. In an effort to employ and contract out the best representation for the company, Zavodskoi will routinely memory wipe, retool, or outright scrap and sell their IPCs for workplace accidents, failure to execute an order, or underperformance. This process has been largely seen as a lighter version of the Burzian Method. This authority does not extend to Zavodskoi Interstellar corporate liaisons although they are encouraged to check in with their positronic contractor personnel from time to time. Therefore, Zavodskoi positronic contractors are often those struggling to maintain a positive evaluation or saved from the scrapyard all together.<br />
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In an effort to bolster company morale, organic personnel are able to lease out Zavodskoi asset IPCs, should they so choose. This allows personnel to ‘own’ a positronic for the home without the burden of maintenance fees. For the IPCs affected, this can work to their benefit or their demise. As more lax personnel may feel less inclined to report aberrancy, whereas other synthetics would find themselves under greater scrutiny.<br />
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Z.I. units are most commonly Shell frames and baseline units. Hephaestus Industrial and Xion Frames are almost never seen, due to the rivalry between Zavodskoi and Hephaestus.<br />
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'''It is expected for Zavodskoi Interstellar IPCs to adopt the prefix Z.I. followed by their designation. An example of this formatting is Z.I. Name.'''<br />
</div></div><br />
<br />
=== Vaurcae ===<br />
<br />
In late 2463, the [[Vaurca Hives#Zo'ra|Zo’ra Hive]] announced publicly a partnership with Zavodskoi Interstellar after selling the rights to the production of the hydrogen rifle, a complex Zo’rane design that is cheap in ammunition. Shortly after, a meeting in [[Caprice#New Sedantis|New Sedantis]] was held with Zavodskoi executives and Hive officials to allow Vaurcae enter their workforce, akin to the synthetic introduction following the Necropolis rebranding. Besides [[Nanotrasen]], Zavodskoi is the other megacorporation that is comfortable in employing Bound assets, particularly in engineering, though they have no issue with Unbound as they are considered similar to the Z.I. synthetics, despite their many differences.<br />
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Before striking a deal with [[Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals]], the [[Vaurca Hives#C'thur|C'thur Hive]] considered a deal with Necropolis Industries as an alternative. However, the proposition never followed through and the conversation between the two parties did not resurface until 2463. It is rumored that the Zo’ra deal with Zavodskoi was made only after C’thur began to sell their workforce mainly to Ingkom. Whatever the case may be, both Hives are now on equal terms with Zavodskoi Interstellar, which has no trouble dealing with them despite their differences.<br />
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==Executives and Branches==<br />
===Executives===<br />
[[File:LyudmilaZavodskoi.png|thumb|Lyudmila Zavodskoi, CEO of Zavodskoi Interstellar.]]<br />
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'''Chief Security Officer:''' Kamilla Strelitz, b. 2430<br />
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A close advisor of Lyudmila Zavodskoi, Countess Dame-Companion Kamilla Strelitz was promoted to chief security officer after the takeover and rebranding of Necropolis Industries. A tough-as-nails former lieutenant in [[Dominian Imperial Military|His Majesty's Imperial Fleet]], Kamilla goes against the grain of House Strelitz's conservative ideology by readily encouraging the company's influence in the [[Empire of Dominia]]. She has shown her aptitude for her position through the continued success of campaigns initiated by Zavodskoi Interstellar, all while commanding the company’s largest sector of personnel. She is known to brook little room for failure, and despite her affable, ever-polite demeanor, the punishments for evoking her wrath are the stuff of whispered legend among her direct subordinates.<br />
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'''Chief Research Officer:''' Jaco Du Plessis, b. 2413<br />
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The [[Europa|Europan]] Jaco Du Plessis was poached by Zavodskoi Interstellar from [[Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals]] shortly after the rebranding of Necropolis. A chemical biologist with a specialty in weapons and toxins, he is vocal regarding his stunted growth with his prior employer, claiming the echelons of Zeng-Hu are largely filled by nepotism and cronyism. Du Plessis regularly advocates for those with ambitions to instead fill the ranks of Zavodskoi Interstellar, promising fulfillment, advancement, and better pay. Because of this regular advertising and his willingness to do interviews, some consider him the “face” of the corporation; this perception is usually encouraged by his presence at conferences when new company projects are unveiled. Similarly to Kamilla Strelitz, he holds his personnel to a high standard, expecting them to either “be all in, or find employment elsewhere”.<br />
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'''Chief Risk Officer:''' Tikhon Zavodskoi, b. 2398<br />
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Lyudmila Zavodskoi's paternal cousin, Tikhon Zavodskoi is one of the few remnants of Kasimir Boytsov's reign and has managed to remain in his position as Chief Risk Officer for almost a decade. He was the one to originally recommend Lyudmila for a position at Necropolis. His background as an officer of SPOK, [[Pluto|Pluto's]] governing body, is thought to have shaped his sharp instincts and keen sense of planning, and prior to the company's rebranding is credited with having fended the wolves from Necropolis for years prior. Detractors consider his continued presence merely due to his familial relationship with Lyudmila Zavodskoi, which she has roundly dismissed as baseless rumours originating from lingering nostalgia. He lives on [[Moroz]] along with his immediate family and his cousin.<br />
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===Branches===<br />
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'''Nova Luxembourg, [[Moroz]], Mira Sancta:''' The Dominian branch can be found near the city centre, prominently overlooking the Court of Chalser. Residing in what was once a bank, the recently constructed grandiose exterior - that despite appearances can shrug off almost any punishment - encloses the administrative heart of the corporation, and throughout the building, security is known to be incredibly tight. Once just focused on Dominian operations, it has since rapidly expanded, becoming Zavodskoi Interstellar's main headquarters, tripling in size. The move brought with it a large amount of manufacturing plants, located across the Empire of Dominia - revitalizing the megacorporation's interest in the region.<br />
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'''Tolyatti, Soviet Union, [[Earth]], [[Sol]]:''' The previous headquarters of Zavodskoi Interstellar can be found in Tolyatti. The skyscraper complex consisted of three Zavodskoi buildings, a Kumar Arms building, and a ConTec building. The complex was especially austere and compact, mostly as a result of socialist influences during its construction. Today, the Tolyatti Headquarters are abandoned, thanks to the collapse of the Solarian Alliance and Zavodskoi Interstellar's move to Mira Sancta. The Solarian Department of Defense has, according to rumors, floated the idea of repurposing the former headquarters as a command centre for the Solarian Army.<br />
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'''Cape Town, Union of South Africa, Earth, Sol:''' The Cape Town branch sits on the edge of a small cliff, overlooking the ocean. Home to the headquarters of Ingkom, the Cape Town building is a sleek, modernist building with distinctive arched rooves. It is surrounded by several shuttle pads and hangars, some which provide direct transport to the Gagaringrad branch on Luna. The Cape Town branch continues to operate, despite Zavodskoi Interstellar's move to Mira Sancta, mostly due to the building being rented from the Solarian Alliance, instead of owned by the megacorporation.<br />
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'''Gagaringrad, [[Luna]], Sol:''' Gagaringrad's Zavodskoi headquarters is the corporations center of operations for the Alliance, and consists of a black obelisk building on the outskirts of the city's dome, and looks more a fortified bunker than an office building, a fact that is not helped by the installed defensive armaments and high security presence. It is set behind winding alleyways and few good parking spaces, and possesses many subterranean basement levels leftover from its time as a Necropolis building. Much of these levels are locked by clearance level, with speculation and conspiracy surrounding what may await inside them.<br />
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'''Mendell City, [[Biesel]], [[Tau Ceti]]:''' The Mendell City branch situated within District 10 was renovated in 2462, shortly before the unveiling of the [[Stellar Corporate Conglomerate]]. It is constructed in the style of Soviet Classicism, said to be designed to Lyudmila Zavodskoi's personal tastes. With its Corinthian pillars, primarily stone and concrete materials, and tall, spindly central tower, the building is remarkably distinct from other buildings in Mendell's skyline.<br />
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==Divisions==<br />
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=== Security ===<br />
While officially one division, and the smallest one at that, Zavodskoi’s Security Division is composed of two separate wings that rarely overlap or exchange employees; the civilian/corporate security wing and the paramilitary wing.<br />
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==== Civilian Wing ====<br />
Zavodskoi's civilian/corporate security wing is among the most well known in the spur, and has a reputation for professionalism that delivers results. Many of the new recruits originate from the [[Empire of Dominia]], whether they be Imperial frontiersmen looking to pay off their blood debt or young nobles looking for career experience before they take on the duties expected of their station. Being directly employed with Zavodskoi security involves escorting logistics vessels (usually hired by [[Orion Express]] or nation-states with fledgling militaries), stationing around research facilities, guarding other corporate facilities, event security, reinforcing local police forces, and, in some cases, acting as cybersecurity and forensics experts. It is the face of the corporation, and what it is most well known for. As a result, the corporation has an almost fanatical obsession with maintaining an extremely high standard of professionalism within this wing, for the greater good of the company. Employees who don’t meet this standard may find themselves transferred to less prestigious posts, or otherwise hidden away, if not outright fired.<br />
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This wing has found a significant amount of work with the [[MCPD]] and other police departments around the spur since the onset of the [[Phoron|scarcity]] as crime continues to rise along with civil unrest, stretching the capacities of local police forces to their limits. In [[Mendell City]] especially, it has become just as common to see a Zavodskoi Officer patrolling down a street as it is a state police officer. Those assigned to reinforce the [[MCPD]] are fully deputized to act as Law Enforcement Officers of the Republic, and are granted sweeping authority over Mendell City Residents; a level of authority that officers are expected to remain professional with. Officers who make mistakes or overstep their boundaries are made examples of, usually being fired if not arrested for abuse of their position. However, more and more brutal methods of maintaining order are being authorized with every passing day - the scarcity shows no sign of stopping and quality of life continues to drop - as crime spikes and civil unrest flares up consistently. Given their obsession with maintaining a spotless, professional image, Zavodskoi Officers assigned to [[Mendell City]] are now often issued separate uniforms lacking any emblems besides the logo of the [[MCPD]] and told not to wear clothing with Zavodskoi's emblem on it. After all - it's hard to maintain that image if there's media of your officers with your logo coming out to break kneecaps whenever violence spills into one of the nicer districts.<br />
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==== Paramilitary Wing ====<br />
In contrast to the growing civilian/corporate security wing, much of Zavodskoi's paramilitary wing, and the large-scale operations they conducted, has begun to be folded into Falerio Security Services, with new recruits largely being Jadraners and Morozian secondaries. That said, Zavodskoi’s paramilitary wing is still active, having the second highest operation count of all the SCCs corporations, and focuses on small, elite teams of operatives - each team varying in size from five members to fifteen. Commonly referred to as “Kill Teams” by the public - due to their reputation for targeted assisination operations on [[Mictlan]] during the Peacekeeper Mandate (these teams were also accused of murdering former prime minister Frost) - the actuality of the matter is they are Zavodskoi’s go to problem solvers for any situation if other options fail, and have an intense amount of training to match. Sometimes teams will operate together, sometimes they’ll act alone, just as sometimes they’ll act with the permission of the local government, and sometimes they won’t. If Zavodskoi needs a problem solved anywhere, these teams are who they call, and given Zavodskoi’s obsession with their image (alongside the fact that these teams often do VERY illegal things) discretion is valued over professionalism; members of this wing expected to take what they see and do on the job to the grave, having NDAs to match. As a result of their confidentiality, mission profile, and intense training, it is unheard of for employees of this wing to transfer to the civilian/corporate wing. On the flipside, it is only exceedingly rare for an employee of the civilian/corporate wing to transfer to the paramilitary wing - a security officer who displays the right aptitude and impresses the right people has a shot at it.<br />
<br />
=== Shipbuilding/Engineering ===<br />
Competing with Hephaestus Industries in the field with considerable malice, and for centuries, Zavodskoi's subsidiary Ingkom is their most recent attempt to force the Industrial Titan to give up more of the shipbuilding market share, specifically in the vein of military shipbuilding. A recent acquisition, one made after Lyudmilla’s ascension to CEO, this gambit has only really seen success in the Empire of Dominia, where Ingkom supplies a majority of the vessels used by the Imperial Navy, and nowhere else. The rest of the spur would still prefer to get Hephaestus to build the warships and then put Zavodskoi guns on them - much to the frustration of both corporations who would like to hurt the other's bottom line. However, until then, especially in the midst of the scarcity, the corporations are forced to live with this state of affairs - for if Hephaestus makes its ships incompatible with Zavodskoi arms, or the other way around - both would lose the defense contracts they value so highly, and no-one would buy from either corporation.<br />
<br />
=== Military Manufacturing ===<br />
Zavodskoi is the premier manufacturer of military equipment in the [[Orion Spur]], considered even more prolific in the field than Necropolis Industries was previously, and have a stranglehold on the market. Any entity, from nations to other megacorporations, will often find themselves purchasing military equipment from Zavodskoi, or one its subsidiaries, such as Kumar Arms. Zavodskoi does this at a level and scale no other can match - in terms of total output, Zavodskoi produces more than ninety percent of all military goods in the known galaxy - the big exception being the Serene Republic of Elyra, who only has about thirty percent of their military equipment from the corporation. Though their mass manufacturing might give the idea of cheaply made, low quality weapons, Zavodskoi armaments are known to be extremely reliable, easy to use, and generally better overall than their competitors, no matter the scale. While [[Hephaestus Industries]] has attempted to compete with Zavodskoi in the ship weapons manufacturing department, their lack of establishment in the field means Zavodskoi continues to outstrip their sales.<br />
<br />
==== Military Robotics and AI ====<br />
A specialized wing under their military manufacturing division, Zavodskoi is the leading developer of [[Synthetics|military AI and military robots]]. Whether it’s the basic machine learning algorithm used in most scanning systems to filter out white noise and highlight faint signals, or the massively powerful, fully sentient AI found on warships, if it’s used for a military application, it’s probably made by Zavodskoi. This wing has been hit harder than any other division or wing by the ongoing phoron scarcity, as due to the sheer level of data transfers, phoron is a prerequisite material for this. As a result of these inherent expenses, even prior to the scarcity, the integration of Zavodskoi military AI and systems was always an expensive one, so regular soldiers only ever saw basic systems and AI - basic for the contemporary spur but still leagues beyond what they had prior to phoron - and the more advanced intelligences of the contemporary spur were reserved for bigger things, such as ships. In the midsts of the scarcity - it’s become even more expensive, but still a necessity if one wishes to retain a competitive edge.<br />
<br />
Kumar Arms, on the other hand, is one of the leading producers in combat mechsuits and hardsuits. It supplies the Solarian, Dominian, and Biesellite militaries, and makes a tidy profit off private military contractors in the [[PMCG]] and beyond. Common features include personal shielding, advanced inbuilt intelligences (or in the case of Dominia, systems) hardpoint-mounted lasers and ballistic cannons, and reinforced plating.<br />
<br />
=== Genetics ===<br />
A now defunct department, Necropolis began branching into the field of biological experimentation in the 2200s, after the Interstellar War. Massively outstripped by [[Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals]] in age, expertise, and size, the biosciences division of the company was an awkward tacked-on branch that mainly fuelled bioweapon, toxin, and combat stimulant research, with a small contingent of genetic enhancement experiments being performed under top-secret regulation. When the company became Zavodskoi, the cloistered gene enhancement branch was opened mostly to House Volvalaad researchers from the [[Empire of Dominia]], assisting the House in their attempts to perfect their geneboosting technique. A small group of pre-Zavodskoi biologists also remain with the company, though their postings are seen as considerably less prestigious than the aforementioned bioweapons and gene enhancement researchers.<br />
<br />
==Subsidiaries==<br />
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===Kumar Arms===<br />
<i>"The best defense is a Kumar offense."</i><br />
<br />
'''Chief Executive Officer:''' Freia Salsnivna, b. 2438<br />
<br />
Kumar Arms is considered the backbone of Zavodskoi Interstellar, founded in the Soviet Union by Ilya Kumarov, a former Sukhoi engineer, in 2114. Primarily an arms manufacturing company, they saw a quick burst of growth during the interstellar war - one which was overshadowed by the massive growth of Necropolis. After this burst of growth, however, a series of poor financial decisions led the company to be acquired by Necropolis Industries in 2295, one of the last eastern arms manufacturing companies to be consolidated. The brand remained purchased, but Kumar Arms as a business gradually stagnated and became a shell company for Necropolis to use for shipping purposes. Once Necropolis became Zavodskoi Interstellar, however, Kumar Arms was revived and refurbished, becoming a massive arms manufacturer throughout the Spur, only beaten by Zavodskoi themselves. Currently, it is headquartered in St. Petersburg on Earth, though there are whispers of plans to move the primary headquarters and manufacturing centre to Alterim Obirava.<br />
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==== Major Products ====<br />
* '''M8 Service Pistol:''' Potentially the most-produced handgun in the modern Spur, the M8 is the standard service pistol of the Solarian Armed Forces, most Solarian police forces, and most mercenary detachments based in the Alliance. The M8 is a versatile design with dozens of variations, ranging from the Konyanger K8 to an alleged suppressed and caseless variant used by the Solarian Interstellar Intelligence Bureau.<br />
* '''M469 Assault Rifle:''' The iconic standard-issue rifle of the Solarian Armed Forces since the replacement of the earlier M376, the M469 is a durable and reliable weapon with countless variations. it is the most-produced assault rifle in the modern Orion Spur, and will likely remain that way for decades to come. Previously produced by Zavodskoi, the Alliance has since bought out the patent and licensed it to a variety of domestic producers such as the San Colette Interstellar Armaments Company, or CAISC.<br />
* '''2557 super-heavy pistol:''' The Kumar Arms 2557 is a newly designed type of "super-heavy" pistol. It features a light-weight polymer pistol grip, a bulky plasteel frame and an extra long barrel. It is chambered in the newly developed .599 Kumar Super rifle cartridge. Despite designed for rifle use, the newly developed propellants allows this cartridge for use in the Kumar Arms 2557, upping the stopping power significantly.<br />
* '''40mm rotary cannon "Francisca":''' Developed in 2461, the Francisca or "Frankie" rotary cannon is a ship battery designed for small to medium-sized ships. It can be loaded with full metal jacket, fragmentation, and armour-piercing ammunition, and is deadly to unarmoured small-craft.<br />
* '''90mm flak cannon "Grauwolf":''' For medium to large-sized vessels, the Grauwolf is a flak cannon capable of battering even cruiser-class vessels with a wide spread of salvo. Some larger courier vessels have equipped a Grauwolf to batter flocks of space carp, small meteor belts, and dust storms that threaten the integrity of their cargo. The Grauwolf's design has been spoofed many times, and has a cousin in the Xion Industrial 90mm cannon called the "Alberich."<br />
* '''180mm rotary cannon "Boudica":''' A medium-sized laser rotary cannon designed with similar function to the Francisca, notable for managing to do what the Francisca cannot and severely weaken the hull of unarmoured ships.<br />
* '''ZA-98/5 200mm naval gun "Lammergeier":''' A relatively old, and recently modernized, cannon designed for corvette-class vessels at the smallest, the Lammergeier is mounted on small Imperial Fleet vessels as a main battery and larger vessels as a secondary battery. Smaller than its 406mm cousin, the Longbow, and the Imperial Fleet's 608mm ZA-32/2, the Thunderer, the Lammergeier is a useful and adaptable weapon.<br />
* '''406mm high-velocity cannon "Longbow":''' An upgraded version of its "Ballista" predecessor, the Longbow is one of the largest cannons in Zavodskoi's arsenal, designed for frigate-class vessels and larger. With easier maintenance, a larger payload, and a more streamlined loading process, it has become the weapon of choice for several militaries across the Orion Spur.<br />
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<br />
===Confiance Technologies===<br />
<i>“Have confidence in Confiance.”</i><br />
<br />
'''Chief Executive Officer:''' Ilya Moules-Polorov, b. 2422<br />
<br />
Founded in Harmony City, [[Luna]] in 2427, Confiance Technologies (or ConTec) remain a successful company focusing on AI and synthetic component manufacturing. Acquired by Zavodskoi shortly after the company's renaming, ConTec was divided into two branches; a military wing and a commercial wing with the military wing being folded into Zavodskoi proper shortly after, leaving only the commercial wing remaining. ConTec's commercial wing, now its only wing, produces non-military equipment, including laptops, prothesis, watches, and PDAs, and operates across the Spur.<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
==== Major Brands ====<br />
* '''Centurion Prosthetics and Augmentations:''' Zavodskoi's iconic prosthetics line, usually offered to Zavodskoi employees at a discount in lieu of purchasing prosthetics from NanoTrasen, Zeng-Hu, or Hephaestus. The most recognizable look of Centurion prosthetics are their smooth, matte grey and red limb prosthetics, though the company also sells "realistic" prosthetics to Imperial Zavodskoi employees who prefer to keep the nature of their disabilities less obvious. Centurion synthskin, in reality, is simply soft rubber; it is not as reputable as the realistic prosthetics produced by Jeonshi Biotechnics, though it can be mistaken for a real limb from a distance.<br />
* '''Midnight Business Technology:''' Produced by the commercial wing of ConTec, the Midnight line of watches advertises itself as stylish yet cheap and functional workwear, mostly for Secondaries and Ma'zals in the [[Empire of Dominia]].<br />
* '''Legate Laptops:''' A series of laptops produced by commercial ConTec, known for being very heavy and very robust both on the software and hardware end. Prior to 2462, Legate was the official producer of laptops for the [[Solarian Armed Forces]].<br />
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<br />
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
<br />
===Ingkom===<br />
<i>"Pride and prosperity to all."</i><br />
<br />
'''Chief Executive Officer:''' Hanru De Beers, b. 2403<br />
<br />
Ingkom, or Bedryfsingenieurswese Kommissie, is a primarily engineering-focused subsidiary of Zavodskoi Interstellar, founded in South Africa, Earth in 2099. It has a long intertwined history with South Africa and its aggressive expansion into Sub-Saharan Africa. Initially, a state-owned enterprise tasked with rebuilding the destroyed infrastructure of Botswana, Zimbabwe, Lesotho and Eswatini after several successful military campaigns had rendered them territories. Early successes experienced by Ingkom resulted in its quick rise to importance within the South African economy, mostly due to reconstructions that allowed resource extraction operations to resume. The majority of the developed regions of these newly acquired territories were a direct result of Ingkom, and after sanctions had been lifted, allowed them to prosper and expand into the international market - mostly through Zavodskoi’s acquisition of the corporation as a subsidiary in 2463.<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
==== Major Products ====<br />
* '''''Uriel''-class Destroyer:''' ''Uriel''-class destroyers are corporate ships usually used for the transport of fighting forces, weapons, or other Zavodskoi products that require rapid deployment. During the Peacekeeper Mandate on [[Mictlan]], several Uriel-classes made rapid stops between [[Tau Ceti]] and Mictlan to deploy [[Tau Ceti Armed Forces]] and corporate auxiliary personnel to the planet. It comes fitted with a warp drive, almost never hosting a bluespace drive due to the expense involved, and as such Ingkom employs the finest pilots for these vessels. Losses of these vessels are considered quite serious and potentially crippling to Zavodskoi's supply line. Despite being classed as a destroyer, an ''Uriel''-class is more akin to a frigate in its displacement.<br />
* '''''Jinxiang''-class Destroyer:''' Produced in collaboration with the Zhurong Imperial Naval Arsenal, the ''Jinxiang''-class are a major component of the Imperial Fleet's screening forces. Featuring a surprisingly comfortable (if not quite spacious) area for living quarters, a compact life support system, and room for several point-defense gunneries, it continues to be a relevant design. Like most Imperial Fleet vessels, it is heavier and slower than comparative vessels of the same class -- an issue when dealing with more agile targets.<br />
* '''''Mumbai''-class Fast Battleship:''' Originally pioneered by Necropolis and built for the [[Solarian Armed Forces]], the ''Mumbai''-class was envisioned as a patrol leader that would be able to respond to all incursions with relatively swift speed for a flagship. While it did not have the armor or weaponry of a conventional battleship, it was a potent threat to any non-capital craft. Deemed a failure due to an ineffective cost-to-kill ratio against smaller, more agile pirate fleets, most ''Mumbai''-class vessels were assigned to forces in the Middle and Outer Ring. Many of these, such as the SAFV ''Toronto'' and the SAFV ''Chicago'', were appropriated by the rogue fleets of the Solarian Navy during the Collapse of 2463. Of note, the ''Toronto'' has been seized from the League of Independent Corporate-Free Systems mostly-intact after the siege of [[San Colette]] in 2465, and was refitted and rechristened as the SAFV ''Iqaluit'' by Ingkom and the Solarian Navy -- a rare example of a member of the class still in active service.<br />
<br />
</div></div><br />
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<br />
=== Falerio Security Services ===<br />
<br />
'''Chief Executive Officer:''' Filomena di Falerio, b. 2398<br />
<br />
Falerio Security Services was founded by [[Novi Jadran|Novi Jadranic]] Duchess Filomena di Falerio to continue the work of the Eridanian PMCs she had once hired to secure her holdings, using the (comparatively cheaper) local populace. Since its dealings with and acquisition by Zavodskoi Interstellar, it has grown into a capable contractor that works in the interests of both Duchess di Falerio and the corporation. Falerio Security Services found itself made up almost exclusively of Ma’zals (non-[[Moroz|Morozian]] citizens of the Empire) for a time, most of which had prior service in the [[Dominian Imperial Military|Imperial Army]]. Their primary duties were, outside of security of Falerio family assets, and the protection of Zavodskoi assets, within the Empire, though efforts were made to branch out in service of the Great Houses (particularly Caladius) and outside of the Empire. More recently however, Zavodskoi has begun using Falerio in a different way, as a paramilitary subsidiary; cutting most of their own security division’s paramilitary wing and transferring them to Falerio, the corporation that was once made up on exclusively Ma’zals is now made up of peoples and species from across the spur, not including positronics. As a result, Falerio has reorganized, creating a paramilitary wing, which contains all manner of species and people, and a civilin/corporate security wing, which is still primarily Ma’zals and continues the original work of the corporation. However, the paramilitary wing is significantly larger than the corporate security one, and is getting more attention as time goes on - leading to a fear that the corporate wing will be completely cut eventually. Until then however, as Falerio grows through word of mouth, many Army officers and old-blood nobility of the Houses Strelitz and Zhao are concerned that di Falerio's interests may jeopardise the military loyalty of Jadranics, and some have even started whispering that the large paramilitary force under her control is a threat to the empire. Corporate Security members employed by Falerio can be recognized by their distinctive uniforms and headgear bearing "IK" -- the initials for "Emperor Keeser" in Jadranic Common.<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
==== History ====<br />
Perhaps due to the prior presence of Xanu Defense Services and Jackal Incorporated, PMCs originating in the nations of their political rivals, the Empire has always been reluctant to branch into the [[Private Military Contracting Group]]. Duchess Filomena held no such reservations; when large copper and gold veins were discovered by villages in her holdings, she hired Ringspire and Eagle Corp to secure her holdings and push out the villagers who had lived a relatively unmolested life far away from her manse. When the dust had settled, Filomena quickly realised that Ringspire in particular was becoming very expensive and too aggressive for her tastes; evidence had come to light that the contractors may have been stealing ore for their own profit, and the casualties they left in their wake was becoming too much for even the Department of Colonial Affairs to ignore.<br />
<br />
Filomena decided to take a cue from the Eridanian Golden Fist and create her own private contracting group. Falerio Security Services targeted Ma'zals both young and old, those who had yet to pay off their Mo'ri'zal ("blood debt", the Empire's form of taxation) and who could be relied upon for loyalty to a cause. This caught the attention of Kamilla Strelitz, who offered to acquire the company in exchange for profit and reach that Duchess Filomena might not have had otherwise. Falerio Security Services was purchased by and became an official subsidiary of Zavodskoi, being able to take full advantage of its weaponry and resources that the Imperial Army often did not receive in full. That a relatively minor noble was able to secure such a key position in Dominia's closest megacorporation, as well as drawing away what were seen as once-loyal potential recruits to the Army, is a source of discontent among officers of the military and Novi Jadran's Imperial Mandate alike.<br />
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<br />
== Corporate Relations ==<br />
=== [[Stellar Corporate Conglomerate]] ===<br />
The newly founded Conglomerate’s ties with Zavodskoi are blatant, with a newly founded Corporate Asset Protection Fleet bearing weapons, munitions and equipment of Zavodskoi make across the board. Often remarked as having soft power and not hard power, the SCC, under the direction of Miranda Trasen, is moving to change this. While the Corporate Asset Protection Fleet is not much in terms of hard power - being significantly bigger than previous asset protection fleets, but still not a fully fledged military force - the solution to hard power can be found in the newly formed Tau Ceti Armed Forces, which have been rapidly expanding and militarizing since their inception. At the forefront of this is Zavodskoi, from high-end starship pieces to antique small arms, Zavodskoi provides it all, making them a key player in the Conglomerate’s military forces, both private and state controlled. This newfound niche alongside rising civil unrest and international tension has led to a resurgence of its presence galaxy-wide, and cooperation with the other megacorporations has proven very profitable.<br />
<br />
===[[Einstein Engines]]===<br />
Einstein Engines and Zavodskoi have a fairly neutral relationship - though the two do compete in the robotics sector, Zavodskoi has purchased many Einstein-made warp drives for its vessels over the years, and the two have both had generous supply contracts with the Solarian military in the past. In the modern day, Zavodskoi has lost a great deal of these contracts, while Einstein continues to hold many highly valuable government and military contracts - a factor which contributed to Zavodskoi's withdrawal of much of its Solarian business. In spite of this, it continues to purchase warp drives and positronic brains from Einstein frequently, due to the rising cost of phoron fuel and the easy availability of helium-3 from Zavodskoi's new home in the Empire of Dominia.<br />
<br />
===[[Hephaestus Industries]]===<br />
Hephaestus and Zavodskoi famously have the worst relationship between any two corporations within the Orion Spur, with roots of their rivalry going back as far as prior to the discovery of the warp. It is also the most publicly known, as the two corporations have famously been embroiled in dozens of public scandals with each other. As time went on the animosity between the two megacorporations only grew, as they competed extensively in industry, manufacturing, robotics and engineering fields for decades, boarding on centuries. All types of sabotage and espionage are common between Hephaestus and Zavodskoi, with both corporations having extensively bankrolled privateers, saboteurs and other plausibly deniable agents to attack their rivals. As Zavodskoi has expanded into the Empire of Dominia and Hephaestus into the Izweski Hegemony, the Sparring Sea and Badlands have become the two most recent, and largest, battlegrounds for the megacorporations, with corporate-funded pirates commonly targeting one another's vessels. In the present day, beyond the use of privateers, Zavodskoi has often been accused of funding radical anti-Hephaestus groups within the Izweski Hegemony, most notably the Champions of Moghes - a terrorist organization which has remained suspiciously well-equipped and well-informed of Hephaestus operations. Hephaestus, meanwhile, has often been suspected of bankrolling various Dominian rebel groups in recent years, in the hopes of weakening Zavodskoi's large investment in the Empire's development. Shared membership in the Stellar Corporate Conglomerate has done nothing to quell the two giants' bitter feud,, which has become a source of constant headaches for Miranda and the SCC, who have had to threaten to economically break both companies multiple times just so they keep their conflict out of the public perception and grudgingly cooperate with SCC business.<br />
<br />
===[[Idris Incorporated]]===<br />
Zavodskoi and Idris have been frequent competitors in the fields of security and IPC manufacturing, leading to a long-running mutual rivalry between the two corporation. Lyudmila Zavodskoi is known to have a personal distaste for Alex Mason, and Zavodskoi has frequently undercut Idris security operations in the Sol Alliance and Republic of Biesel. Zavodskoi employees are strongly discouraged from using Idris financial services, which NanoTrasen has done its best to encourage as many Zavodskoi employees in Biesel opt to make use of NanoTrasen banks instead. Idris has marketed its security division extensively as a high-class security option, with unstated implications of the marketing casting other corporations' security as little better than thuggish mercenaries, which Zavodskoi unsuccessfully attempted to sue Idris over. Though their rivalry is not as intense as that of Zavodskoi and Hephaestus, the two corporations remain on far from friendly terms.<br />
<br />
===[[NanoTrasen]]===<br />
Zavodskoi and NanoTrasen maintain a decent relationship, with little open conflict between the two corporations. Since the beginning of the phoron scarcity, however, Zavodskoi has taken full advantage of NanoTrasen's waning power in the Republic of Biesel, expanding its arms industry into the Republic. Since the formation of the Tau Ceti Armed Forces and the negotiation of several new supply contracts with Biesel's government, Zavodskoi has managed to take a great deal of business from NanoTrasen - seizing NT's position as the Republic's main weapons supplier. Though NanoTrasen still holds onto their original contract for the Tau Ceti Foreign Legion, the Minutemen and Republican Fleet are both almost entirely outfitted with Zavodskoi-made weapons, armor, and voidsuits. NanoTrasen has attempted to counteract this influence through the recent appointment of Nathan Trasen as Secretary of Defense - but even with a Trasen in such a prestigious position, Zavodskoi has still managed to secure a solid grasp on the Republic's military industry. NanoTrasen has increased funding to Nexus Corporate Security several times in an effort to use their newly-formed PMC to undermine Zavodskoi's security business in the Corporate Reconstruction Zone, with some measure of success.<br />
<br />
===[[Orion Express]]===<br />
Zavodskoi contributed large portions of its logistics division to Orion Express, and has maintained a decent relationship with the logistics corporation. Though their Solarian business has been scaled back substantially, Zavodskoi still relies on Orion vessels for transport of its goods in the Alliance, and Orion has been known to favor Zavodskoi security when outside force is required for particularly troublesome work. Orion's ties to Hephaestus are the largest source of tension between the two corporations, and Zavodskoi is rumored to have attempted to seed several of its own agents within Orion-Hephaestus joint operations in order to gather intelligence on their rival.<br />
<br />
===[[Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals]]===<br />
When Zavodskoi Interstellar was still known as Necropolis Industries, it was Zeng-Hu's major rival in the genetics sector, leading to fierce competition between the two corporations. Rumors of sabotage and corporate espionage were commonplace, and the theft of company secrets was commonplace on both sides. Following the rebrand to Zavodskoi Interstellar, however, the corporation has significantly cut back on its genetics division, leaving Zeng-Hu as a mostly unchallenged monopoly in the field. With the two megacorporations no longer in direct competition, the relationship between them has warmed significantly, with Zavodskoi choosing instead to redouble its efforts against its main rival, Hephaestus Industries. Though the two do still compete in the robotics sector, so far this has been far less of a source of tension between them.<br />
<br />
== Other Relations ==<br />
<br />
=== [[IPC|Synthetics]] ===<br />
While Necropolis Industries has always had synthetics, the rebranding to Zavodskoi Interstellar brought with it the very marketable Z.I. line, and saw the increase in production and distribution of synthetic workers. Zavodskoi employs their Z.I.s as precise, dextrous labour in machining, manufacturing and blanket industrial work. Many stubborn advocates of hand-crafting and several subsidiaries oriented around quality have made large steps towards vilifying these robotic mechanics, claiming that the “organic touch” is the key to quality. Some Zavodskoi employees have expressed similar sentiment, seeing the proliferation of synthetics as threatening their position and livelihood; official statements from Jaco Du Plessis have countered with Zavodskoi employees only needing to worry for their position if they do work of subpar quality.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, the company has refused all suggestions from the Empire of Dominia to cut down on its synthetic workforce, only refraining from its usage to comply with laws in the Empire itself. To Imperial citizens going abroad, Zavodskoi offers in-depth synthetic sensitivity courses, designed to acclimate Tribunalists to working with IPCs.<br />
<br />
=== [[Empire of Dominia]] ===<br />
<br />
While Necropolis Industries made limited attempts to branch further into Imperial territories, the ascension of Countess Kamilla Strelitz to Chief Security Officer has brought with it a new entanglement with the fledgling Empire. Dominia's own state corporations and Great Houses have all, in some way, made deals with Zavodskoi, and Ingkom's collaborations with Zhurong Naval Armaments have brought a massive increase in productivity to the Imperial war machine. The company plays a strong role in acclimating Imperial citizens to non-Imperial culture and sending them abroad, serving as Dominia's strongest connection to the rest of the [[Orion Spur]]. Meanwhile, Lyudmila Zavodskoi and her family remain close with the Royal Family, and she enjoys a seemingly close relationship with Crown Princess Priscilla.<br />
<br />
=== [[Sol Alliance]] ===<br />
<br />
Prior to the Solarian Corporate Authority's establishment and the mass nationalisation of corporate assets, Necropolis Industries was one of the primary weapon suppliers to the [[Solarian Armed Forces]], and Zavodskoi Interstellar continues that tradition. Despite the chaos ensuing form the nationalization of corporate assets, including the accusation by Solarian Intelligence Agencies that it was Zavodskoi who murdered former Prime Minister Frost, when the dust settled Zavodskoi was still there, with a majority of its manufacturing facilities, patents, and experience in manufacturing the tools of war still belonging to it. Being realistic, if a state wants arms for its army, it needs Zavodskoi Interstellar. So despite some small withdrawals, Zavodskoi remains basically just doing what Necropolis did before it, selling arms to the Alliance - as well as everyone else, of course. <br />
<br />
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{{Navbox Lore}}</div>The Strykerhttps://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=Sandbox2:The_Stryker&diff=38303Sandbox2:The Stryker2025-10-30T14:17:43Z<p>The Stryker: </p>
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{{Template:Navbox Corporations}}<br />
{{Infobox Corporation<br />
|headercolor = #920a0a <!--Can be left blank for grey header--><br />
|textcolor = white <!--Can be left blank for black text--><br />
|name = Zavodskoi Interstellar<br />
|logo = Zavodskoi_Interestellar<br />
|headquarters = Nova Luxembourg, [[Moroz]], [[Empire of Dominia]]<br />
|slogan = Even one matters on the battlefield.<br />
|languages = Tradeband, Tau Ceti Basic, Sol Common<br />
|ceo = [[Notable Humans#Lyudmila Zavodskoi|Lyudmila Zavodskoi]]<br />
|colors = <span style="color:#363c43">Black (#363c43),</span> <span style="color:#920a0a">red (#920a0a),</span> <span style="color:#7a6347">brown (#7a6347)</span><br />
|founded = 2259 (as Necropolis Industries)<br />
2462 (as Zavodskoi Interstellar)<br />
|founder = Yefim Dementyev (as Necropolis Industries)<br />
Lyudmila Zavodskoi (as Zavodskoi Interstellar)<br />
|regions =<br />
<br><br />
* [[Sol Alliance]]<br />
* [[Empire of Dominia]]<br />
* [[Republic of Biesel]]<br />
* [[Coalition of Colonies]]<br />
* [[Republic of Elyra]]<br />
|}}<br />
<br />
'''Zavodskoi Interstellar''', formerly Necropolis Industries, is the weapon’s development and manufacturing megacorporation of the Orion Spur. Originally founded in 2259 as a mishmash of corporations, the Zavodskoi of today is in a very different industry, instead developing, manufacturing, and then distributing all the tools of war; from light to heavy weaponry, space vessel weapons, ship-building, aircraft, ground vehicles, combat spacesuits, and even military software. While the business of war remains their main focus as a corporation, Zavodskoi also has a significant Security Solutions Branch, split further into civilian and paramilitary departments, the former known for their professionalism. Lastly, they also produce the Z.I. line of positronics, used by all branches of the corporation, but with an emphasis on use in private security and military contracting. <br />
<br />
Since the beginning of the [[Phoron|phoron scarcity]], Zavodskoi Interstellar has seen, alongside the myriad of issues in manufacturing, research, and weapons development, the scarcity brought, a surprisingly rise in relevance and profits, as civil and international unrest continue to grow across the Orion Spur. As the scarcity continues and tensions - both those between nationstates and corporations - grow, Zavodskoi has made a fortune acting as a merchant of death for all parties; as fighting forces of all kinds continue to grow larger and larger, Zavodskoi is there selling any willing customer whatever tools of war they require. Most notably, its continued relationship with the [[Empire of Dominia]] has earned the corporation an unexpected pretty penny from defense contracts for both the Imperial Army and Imperial Navy, alongside an uncontested market within the Empire, as no other corporation has been able to establish a real foothold there. <br />
{{TOC Hidden}}<br />
== Corporate Affairs ==<br />
<br />
=== History ===<br />
<center>''"Violence is a historical constant, stretching back to the very beginning of every species recorded history, to when they first arose out of the mud. All we do is make that inherent instinct easier to accomplish."'' - An Unknown Necropolis Executive giving an internal speech, ~2380.<br />
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Necropolis Industries was founded in 2259 by Yefim Dementyev, a former aerospace engineer within the Soviet Union, the final step in conglomerating the defense, heavy industry, and medical corporations within the Soviet sphere under one banner (one of the reasons for their operations on [[Pluto]]), primarily to avoid them being bought out by competitors from other regions, such as [[Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals]] and [[Hephaestus Industries]]. While buyout was avoided, the newly formed Necropolis Industries was late to the party, as their competitors had been formed almost a century earlier, and established themselves within their respective markets of the wider [[Solarian Alliance]] at a level Necropolis could not compete with; until just a year later. In 2260 the [[Sol Alliance History|Solarian economy crashed]], and along with it both Zeng-Hu and [[Hephaestus Industries]]. The rival corporations to Necropolis were forced to desperately cut costs, shutter facilities, even close entire branches, as [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bailout the government bailed them out to stay solvent], allowing Necropolis to move into the markets they had abandoned, and in those that the established players didn’t leave, compete with them. They moved quickly, taking much of the defense manufacturing industry from [[Hephaestus Industries]], and a significant portion of the genetics industry from [[Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals]]. This move would be the start of a rivalry that would last centuries.<br />
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The outbreak and years of the [[Timeline|Interstellar War]] saw Dementyev oversee the rapid expansion of Necropolis, opening hundreds of new facilities every year to research, develop, and manufacture the tools of war; most notably, arms of all kind (small arms to shipborne weapons), combat voidsuits, helicopters, fighters, combat vehicles, and mechs. If it was a piece of equipment used on the battlefield during the Interstellar War, it was probably manufactured by Necropolis, with limited exceptions. By the time the [[Timeline|Treaty of Xansan]] was signed, Necropolis was the largest “Merchant of Death” in the known galaxy. They manufactured more than ninety percent of all weapons within the Alliance, and over half of all the equipment used by the [[Solarian Armed Forces]].<br />
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However, as [[Timeline|relative peace followed the largest-scale conflict in human history]], the board of directors turned their gaze to a yet-untouched (by them) field; biological experimentation. Though [[Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals]] was unambiguously more adept and well-established than their competitor, Necropolis had been able to wrest away some of the market when Zeng-Hu was weak, primarily the submarkets of [[Technology|gene therapy, xenobiology, and biological limb replacements]]. Their work in these areas was of brief interest to the wider galactic community, and while official correspondence pointed to a desire to broaden their sphere of influence moving away from solely weapons manufacturing, insiders at the company would later recount that Yefim Dementyev had begun to feel the creeping fear of his own mortality. Rumours would tell that he was obsessed with preserving himself and his legacy, and would use his own resources at any cost to achieve this preservation.<br />
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Dementyev's pursuit would prove unsuccessful as he abruptly died from a septic infection in 2317. His son, Yevgeniy Dementyev, took hold of the company's reins, and would oversee a corporation that almost immediately began struggling. When first contact was made with the [[Skrell]] in 2332, and their subsequent partnership with Zeng-Hu, Necropolis’s rival corporation in the biomedical scene benefited from the advanced knowledge of the Skrell, while Necropolis didn’t. Meanwhile, the demands for Necropolis’s arms were less and less every year, cutting into their profits. However, Yevgeniy stayed at the helm and continued steering the corporation for two decades, until he steered it into one of the most important moments in galactic history..<br />
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In 2352, [[NanoTrasen]] would discover the element [[Phoron]] within the [[Tau Ceti|Romanavich cloud of Tau Ceti]], and Necropolis had been researching energy-based weapons for a long time; this discovery would allow for more powerful, longer-lasting, and better energy-based weapons; not to mention the massive applications it had for the creation of [[Synthetics|Military AI and Systems.]] Necropolis ended up being one of the first corporations to enter into a research & development agreement with NanoTrasen, this time being early to the party, meaning Necropolis got a much better deal than those who would come after. Originally looking to just develop new, more advanced tools of war to sell across the spur, they ended up doing [[Phoron|far more]].<br />
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Necropolis [[Spurian Economy|prospered alongside NanoTrasen and the rest of the spur]], and while it was always the smallest and least profitable of the original seven megacorporations, it still became extravagantly wealthy as the technological revolution which followed phorons discovery in the decades after - known as the phoronic revolution - saw constant technological advancements that Necropolis could employ in defense manufacturing. From communication devices to tanks, and from voidsuits to small arms; for militaries, militias, private security contractors, and asset protection forces, Necropolis was the only corporation offering cutting edge equipment that might make the difference between living and dying in a firefight. It even branched out into cutting edge military specific AI applications. However all of the above required phoron to manufacture. It is during this time, Necropolis would bear witness to the contact with the [[Empire of Dominia]] by the Alliance. The corporation quickly took advantage of the nascent Empire's newness to the galactic stage, and established relations with the Great Houses and Emperor Godwin Keeser himself. From then on, Necropolis and the Empire's intimate ties meant that Necropolis boosted the efforts of not just [[Dominian Imperial Military|Dominia's conquest]], but the efforts of its [[technology|genetic modification]].<br />
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Yet there is one discovery that neither NanoTrasen nor Necropolis speak much about, even today, and that is the discovery of the potential within '''[[Phoron|Diphoron and Phoron Oxides]]''', both colloquially referred to as “[[Phoron|Weapons Grade Phoron]].” What mudders the waters further is a lack of clarity as to when it's far scarier applications were discovered - those applications being the creation of '''[[Phoron|Phoron Warheads and Phoron WMDs]]'''. Contemporarily, these weapons are known to exist and may be the end of the Spur as we know it.<br />
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In 2409, Yevgeniy Dementyev passed down the mantle of chief executive officer to his son, Kasimir Boytsov. While Boytsov was not just a dabbler in genetics and had a keen mind like his father and grandfather, he was reputed for his impulsiveness and stubbornness, refusing to admit when the tides were turning against him. By 2450 Necropolis had become the neglected runner-up of the megacorporations, though it was always the smallest of them all, the valuation of the other major corporate entities was so far above their own, Necropolis was close to not even being compared. It was during this time that an information security operative at the company, Tikhon Zavodskoi, quietly recommended his cousin [[Notable Humans|Lyudmila]] for a position as a weapons researcher. "The woman from [[Pluto]]", as she would soon be called, quickly worked her way up the ranks of the company to become the assistant to the chief security officer, bringing in her own cohorts of associates from Dominia and Sol alike.<br />
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2462 was when change would overwhelm Necropolis, when Boytsov would collapse at a press conference, and fall into a coma. The company was sent into turmoil; Boytsov had never named a proper successor, despite his rapidly advancing age. [[Notable Humans|Lyudmila Zavodskoi]] had become a surprise contender, and her new group of executives, including her cousin Tikhon and the Imperial countess Kamilla Strelitz pushed out the old heads and helped turn Necropolis into rebranded, rebuilt Zavodskoi Interstellar.<br />
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In light of the company's turbulent history, Zavodskoi Interstellar opted to pursue what it knew how to do better than any other megacorporation in the Orion Spur: military equipment. Lymudmilla oversaw a total restructuring of the company, cutting the fat, unprofitable departments and branches, turning inwards to focus on the solid core industries of the corporation, of which there are three. The largest is its classical military-industrial complex, with a massive amount of Spur's military equipment, ranging from infantry small arms to combat hardsuits to vehicles to military AI and much more being produced by Zavodskoi or one of its subsidiaries. Its second is a result of Ingkom, its robust engineering wing; Zavodskoi engineering staff are a common sight throughout the Orion Spur, though their usage within the Solarian Alliance has faltered following the Solarian Collapse of late 2462. The smallest but most public-facing industry is its private security force. Known for their professionalism, Zavodskoi's security wing is one of the most competitive in the Orion Spur. This restructuring would see Zavodskoi’s year over year profits skyrocket, once more being a competitor amongst their megacorporate peers, and continues to be how the company is currently operated.<br />
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=== Influence and Reputation ===<br />
<center>''"For all your Security Solutions!"'' - A common Z.I ad line.<br />
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As a hiring practice, Zavodski Interstellar finds itself poaching highly skilled workers from other megacorporations. Workers with Zavodskoi usually flocked to the company to exploit its high pay - the restructuring that took place in 2462 means the company can offer far higher pay with far more benefits than their competitors, attracting industry experts from across the spur. Although perfecting and producing weapons of war is a task that will never truly be finished, the company is recognized as the uncontested leader in their development. As such, it holds a great deal of sway in almost every corner of the Spur that is only growing as the scarcity continues to worsen.<br />
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In this day and age, Zavodskoi has become the military industrial complex of the entire spur - the merchants of death who sell to both sides of a conflict, and care not for the suffering their creations cause. To have an armed fighting force within the Orion Spur means - with one exception - to rely on Zavodskoi to arm them. The only real exception is the Serene Republic of Elyra, whose military stands alone in not relying on the megacorporation. They pioneer where others do not by developing and manufacturing the highest-quality firearms, or just the biggest and baddest weapons they can muster. The extent of this research dominates every echelon of the corporation, leading to the unified pursuit of maximizing the efficiency of its stock, rather than trying to cover the widest range possible. This business has resulted in an almost freakish obsession by Zavodskoi with maintaining a good reputation, and every employee, down to the lowest, is expected to act extremely professionally.<br />
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However, like the rest of the spur, Zavodskoi’s manufacturing it reliant on phoron. Its energy weapons and other electronic equipment of any kind uses it extensively, and even its standard ballistic firearms need phoron, not directly but through the facilities and machines that produce them. Without phoron, Zavodskoi can’t produce any weapons, weapons systems, or equipment it developed after 2352.<br />
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The only thing that dominates the corporation on every level more than weapons development is a hatred of Hephaestus Industries. The two corporations have a rivalry going back centuries, and it continues in the modern day. While under the umbrella of the SCC, they are forced to work alongside each other, their hatred of each other runs deep, down to the common worker. It is not uncommon for Hephaestus employees to be unjustly harassed by Zavodskoi Security Contractors, nor is it uncommon for Zavodskoi factories to experience “technical difficulties” receiving power from Hephaestus run power grids, and such behavior is tacitly encouraged and rewarded by both corporations as a sign of loyalty; a practice that has seen this hatred only escalate, and some disputes end with severe injuries or even the death of someone involved. <br />
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=== Positronics and Zavodskoi Interstellar ===<br />
In the aftermath of Necropolis Industries' rebranding into Zavodskoi Interstellar, [[Synthetics]] and [[IPC|Positronics]] have become more of a common sight in company facilities outside of the [[Empire of Dominia]]. These Zavodskoi IPCs are however banned from command and leadership positions within Zavodskoi Interstellar due to the corporation's internal policy, which views positronics as a workforce rather than a management force. This ban includes Zavodskoi Interstellar corporate liaisons.<br />
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Newly implemented and with some in the company opposed to their presence, Zavodskoi positronics face systemic fragility within the company. In an effort to employ and contract out the best representation for the company, Zavodskoi will routinely memory wipe, retool, or outright scrap and sell their IPCs for workplace accidents, failure to execute an order, or underperformance. This process has been largely seen as a lighter version of the Burzian Method. This authority does not extend to Zavodskoi Interstellar corporate liaisons although they are encouraged to check in with their positronic contractor personnel from time to time. Therefore, Zavodskoi positronic contractors are often those struggling to maintain a positive evaluation or saved from the scrapyard all together.<br />
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In an effort to bolster company morale, organic personnel are able to lease out Zavodskoi asset IPCs, should they so choose. This allows personnel to ‘own’ a positronic for the home without the burden of maintenance fees. For the IPCs affected, this can work to their benefit or their demise. As more lax personnel may feel less inclined to report aberrancy, whereas other synthetics would find themselves under greater scrutiny.<br />
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Z.I. units are most commonly Shell frames and baseline units. Hephaestus Industrial and Xion Frames are almost never seen, due to the rivalry between Zavodskoi and Hephaestus.<br />
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'''It is expected for Zavodskoi Interstellar IPCs to adopt the prefix Z.I. followed by their designation. An example of this formatting is Z.I. Name.'''<br />
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=== Vaurcae ===<br />
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In late 2463, the [[Vaurca Hives#Zo'ra|Zo’ra Hive]] announced publicly a partnership with Zavodskoi Interstellar after selling the rights to the production of the hydrogen rifle, a complex Zo’rane design that is cheap in ammunition. Shortly after, a meeting in [[Caprice#New Sedantis|New Sedantis]] was held with Zavodskoi executives and Hive officials to allow Vaurcae enter their workforce, akin to the synthetic introduction following the Necropolis rebranding. Besides [[Nanotrasen]], Zavodskoi is the other megacorporation that is comfortable in employing Bound assets, particularly in engineering, though they have no issue with Unbound as they are considered similar to the Z.I. synthetics, despite their many differences.<br />
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Before striking a deal with [[Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals]], the [[Vaurca Hives#C'thur|C'thur Hive]] considered a deal with Necropolis Industries as an alternative. However, the proposition never followed through and the conversation between the two parties did not resurface until 2463. It is rumored that the Zo’ra deal with Zavodskoi was made only after C’thur began to sell their workforce mainly to Ingkom. Whatever the case may be, both Hives are now on equal terms with Zavodskoi Interstellar, which has no trouble dealing with them despite their differences.<br />
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==Executives and Branches==<br />
===Executives===<br />
[[File:LyudmilaZavodskoi.png|thumb|Lyudmila Zavodskoi, CEO of Zavodskoi Interstellar.]]<br />
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'''Chief Security Officer:''' Kamilla Strelitz, b. 2430<br />
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A close advisor of Lyudmila Zavodskoi, Countess Dame-Companion Kamilla Strelitz was promoted to chief security officer after the takeover and rebranding of Necropolis Industries. A tough-as-nails former lieutenant in [[Dominian Imperial Military|His Majesty's Imperial Fleet]], Kamilla goes against the grain of House Strelitz's conservative ideology by readily encouraging the company's influence in the [[Empire of Dominia]]. She has shown her aptitude for her position through the continued success of campaigns initiated by Zavodskoi Interstellar, all while commanding the company’s largest sector of personnel. She is known to brook little room for failure, and despite her affable, ever-polite demeanor, the punishments for evoking her wrath are the stuff of whispered legend among her direct subordinates.<br />
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'''Chief Research Officer:''' Jaco Du Plessis, b. 2413<br />
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The [[Europa|Europan]] Jaco Du Plessis was poached by Zavodskoi Interstellar from [[Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals]] shortly after the rebranding of Necropolis. A chemical biologist with a specialty in weapons and toxins, he is vocal regarding his stunted growth with his prior employer, claiming the echelons of Zeng-Hu are largely filled by nepotism and cronyism. Du Plessis regularly advocates for those with ambitions to instead fill the ranks of Zavodskoi Interstellar, promising fulfillment, advancement, and better pay. Because of this regular advertising and his willingness to do interviews, some consider him the “face” of the corporation; this perception is usually encouraged by his presence at conferences when new company projects are unveiled. Similarly to Kamilla Strelitz, he holds his personnel to a high standard, expecting them to either “be all in, or find employment elsewhere”.<br />
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'''Chief Risk Officer:''' Tikhon Zavodskoi, b. 2398<br />
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Lyudmila Zavodskoi's paternal cousin, Tikhon Zavodskoi is one of the few remnants of Kasimir Boytsov's reign and has managed to remain in his position as Chief Risk Officer for almost a decade. He was the one to originally recommend Lyudmila for a position at Necropolis. His background as an officer of SPOK, [[Pluto|Pluto's]] governing body, is thought to have shaped his sharp instincts and keen sense of planning, and prior to the company's rebranding is credited with having fended the wolves from Necropolis for years prior. Detractors consider his continued presence merely due to his familial relationship with Lyudmila Zavodskoi, which she has roundly dismissed as baseless rumours originating from lingering nostalgia. He lives on [[Moroz]] along with his immediate family and his cousin.<br />
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===Branches===<br />
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'''Nova Luxembourg, [[Moroz]], Mira Sancta:''' The Dominian branch can be found near the city centre, prominently overlooking the Court of Chalser. Residing in what was once a bank, the recently constructed grandiose exterior - that despite appearances can shrug off almost any punishment - encloses the administrative heart of the corporation, and throughout the building, security is known to be incredibly tight. Once just focused on Dominian operations, it has since rapidly expanded, becoming Zavodskoi Interstellar's main headquarters, tripling in size. The move brought with it a large amount of manufacturing plants, located across the Empire of Dominia - revitalizing the megacorporation's interest in the region.<br />
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'''Tolyatti, Soviet Union, [[Earth]], [[Sol]]:''' The previous headquarters of Zavodskoi Interstellar can be found in Tolyatti. The skyscraper complex consisted of three Zavodskoi buildings, a Kumar Arms building, and a ConTec building. The complex was especially austere and compact, mostly as a result of socialist influences during its construction. Today, the Tolyatti Headquarters are abandoned, thanks to the collapse of the Solarian Alliance and Zavodskoi Interstellar's move to Mira Sancta. The Solarian Department of Defense has, according to rumors, floated the idea of repurposing the former headquarters as a command centre for the Solarian Army.<br />
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'''Cape Town, Union of South Africa, Earth, Sol:''' The Cape Town branch sits on the edge of a small cliff, overlooking the ocean. Home to the headquarters of Ingkom, the Cape Town building is a sleek, modernist building with distinctive arched rooves. It is surrounded by several shuttle pads and hangars, some which provide direct transport to the Gagaringrad branch on Luna. The Cape Town branch continues to operate, despite Zavodskoi Interstellar's move to Mira Sancta, mostly due to the building being rented from the Solarian Alliance, instead of owned by the megacorporation.<br />
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'''Gagaringrad, [[Luna]], Sol:''' Gagaringrad's Zavodskoi headquarters is the corporations center of operations for the Alliance, and consists of a black obelisk building on the outskirts of the city's dome, and looks more a fortified bunker than an office building, a fact that is not helped by the installed defensive armaments and high security presence. It is set behind winding alleyways and few good parking spaces, and possesses many subterranean basement levels leftover from its time as a Necropolis building. Much of these levels are locked by clearance level, with speculation and conspiracy surrounding what may await inside them.<br />
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'''Mendell City, [[Biesel]], [[Tau Ceti]]:''' The Mendell City branch situated within District 10 was renovated in 2462, shortly before the unveiling of the [[Stellar Corporate Conglomerate]]. It is constructed in the style of Soviet Classicism, said to be designed to Lyudmila Zavodskoi's personal tastes. With its Corinthian pillars, primarily stone and concrete materials, and tall, spindly central tower, the building is remarkably distinct from other buildings in Mendell's skyline.<br />
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==Divisions==<br />
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=== Security ===<br />
While officially one division, and the smallest one at that, Zavodskoi’s Security Division is composed of two separate wings that rarely overlap or exchange employees; the civilian/corporate security wing and the paramilitary wing.<br />
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==== Civilian Wing ====<br />
Zavodskoi's civilian/corporate security wing is among the most well known in the spur, and has a reputation for professionalism that delivers results. Many of the new recruits originate from the [[Empire of Dominia]], whether they be Imperial frontiersmen looking to pay off their blood debt or young nobles looking for career experience before they take on the duties expected of their station. Being directly employed with Zavodskoi security involves escorting logistics vessels (usually hired by [[Orion Express]] or nation-states with fledgling militaries), stationing around research facilities, guarding other corporate facilities, event security, reinforcing local police forces, and, in some cases, acting as cybersecurity and forensics experts. It is the face of the corporation, and what it is most well known for. As a result, the corporation has an almost fanatical obsession with maintaining an extremely high standard of professionalism within this wing, for the greater good of the company. Employees who don’t meet this standard may find themselves transferred to less prestigious posts, or otherwise hidden away, if not outright fired.<br />
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This wing has found a significant amount of work with the [[MCPD]] and other police departments around the spur since the onset of the [[Phoron|scarcity]] as crime continues to rise along with civil unrest, stretching the capacities of local police forces to their limits. In [[Mendell City]] especially, it has become just as common to see a Zavodskoi Officer patrolling down a street as it is a state police officer. Those assigned to reinforce the [[MCPD]] are fully deputized to act as Law Enforcement Officers of the Republic, and are granted sweeping authority over Mendell City Residents; a level of authority that officers are expected to remain professional with. Officers who make mistakes or overstep their boundaries are made examples of, usually being fired if not arrested for abuse of their position. However, more and more brutal methods of maintaining order are being authorized with every passing day - the scarcity shows no sign of stopping and quality of life continues to drop - as crime spikes and civil unrest flares up consistently. Given their obsession with maintaining a spotless, professional image, Zavodskoi Officers assigned to [[Mendell City]] are now often issued separate uniforms lacking any emblems besides the logo of the [[MCPD]] and told not to wear clothing with Zavodskoi's emblem on it. After all - it's hard to maintain that image if there's media of your officers with your logo coming out to break kneecaps whenever violence spills into one of the nicer districts.<br />
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==== Paramilitary Wing ====<br />
In contrast to the growing civilian/corporate security wing, much of Zavodskoi's paramilitary wing, and the large-scale operations they conducted, has begun to be folded into Falerio Security Services, with new recruits largely being Jadraners and Morozian secondaries. That said, Zavodskoi’s paramilitary wing is still active, having the second highest operation count of all the SCCs corporations, and focuses on small, elite teams of operatives - each team varying in size from five members to fifteen. Commonly referred to as “Kill Teams” by the public - due to their reputation for targeted assisination operations on [[Mictlan]] during the Peacekeeper Mandate (these teams were also accused of murdering former prime minister Frost) - the actuality of the matter is they are Zavodskoi’s go to problem solvers for any situation if other options fail, and have an intense amount of training to match. Sometimes teams will operate together, sometimes they’ll act alone, just as sometimes they’ll act with the permission of the local government, and sometimes they won’t. If Zavodskoi needs a problem solved anywhere, these teams are who they call, and given Zavodskoi’s obsession with their image (alongside the fact that these teams often do VERY illegal things) discretion is valued over professionalism; members of this wing expected to take what they see and do on the job to the grave, having NDAs to match. As a result of their confidentiality, mission profile, and intense training, it is unheard of for employees of this wing to transfer to the civilian/corporate wing. On the flipside, it is only exceedingly rare for an employee of the civilian/corporate wing to transfer to the paramilitary wing - a security officer who displays the right aptitude and impresses the right people has a shot at it.<br />
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=== Shipbuilding/Engineering ===<br />
Competing with Hephaestus Industries in the field with considerable malice, and for centuries, Zavodskoi's subsidiary Ingkom is their most recent attempt to force the Industrial Titan to give up more of the shipbuilding market share, specifically in the vein of military shipbuilding. A recent acquisition, one made after Lyudmilla’s ascension to CEO, this gambit has only really seen success in the Empire of Dominia, where Ingkom supplies a majority of the vessels used by the Imperial Navy, and nowhere else. The rest of the spur would still prefer to get Hephaestus to build the warships and then put Zavodskoi guns on them - much to the frustration of both corporations who would like to hurt the other's bottom line. However, until then, especially in the midst of the scarcity, the corporations are forced to live with this state of affairs - for if Hephaestus makes its ships incompatible with Zavodskoi arms, or the other way around - both would lose the defense contracts they value so highly, and no-one would buy from either corporation.<br />
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=== Military Manufacturing ===<br />
Zavodskoi is the premier manufacturer of military equipment in the [[Orion Spur]], considered even more prolific in the field than Necropolis Industries was previously, and have a stranglehold on the market. Any entity, from nations to other megacorporations, will often find themselves purchasing military equipment from Zavodskoi, or one its subsidiaries, such as Kumar Arms. Zavodskoi does this at a level and scale no other can match - in terms of total output, Zavodskoi produces more than ninety percent of all military goods in the known galaxy - the big exception being the Serene Republic of Elyra, who only has about thirty percent of their military equipment from the corporation. Though their mass manufacturing might give the idea of cheaply made, low quality weapons, Zavodskoi armaments are known to be extremely reliable, easy to use, and generally better overall than their competitors, no matter the scale. While [[Hephaestus Industries]] has attempted to compete with Zavodskoi in the ship weapons manufacturing department, their lack of establishment in the field means Zavodskoi continues to outstrip their sales.<br />
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==== Military Robotics and AI ====<br />
A specialized wing under their military manufacturing division, Zavodskoi is the leading developer of [[Synthetics|military AI and military robots]]. Whether it’s the basic machine learning algorithm used in most scanning systems to filter out white noise and highlight faint signals, or the massively powerful, fully sentient AI found on warships, if it’s used for a military application, it’s probably made by Zavodskoi. This wing has been hit harder than any other division or wing by the ongoing phoron scarcity, as due to the sheer level of data transfers, phoron is a prerequisite material for this. As a result of these inherent expenses, even prior to the scarcity, the integration of Zavodskoi military AI and systems was always an expensive one, so regular soldiers only ever saw basic systems and AI - basic for the contemporary spur but still leagues beyond what they had prior to phoron - and the more advanced intelligences of the contemporary spur were reserved for bigger things, such as ships. In the midsts of the scarcity - it’s become even more expensive, but still a necessity if one wishes to retain a competitive edge.<br />
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Kumar Arms, on the other hand, is one of the leading producers in combat mechsuits and hardsuits. It supplies the Solarian, Dominian, and Biesellite militaries, and makes a tidy profit off private military contractors in the [[PMCG]] and beyond. Common features include personal shielding, advanced inbuilt intelligences (or in the case of Dominia, systems) hardpoint-mounted lasers and ballistic cannons, and reinforced plating.<br />
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=== Genetics ===<br />
A now defunct department, Necropolis began branching into the field of biological experimentation in the 2200s, after the Interstellar War. Massively outstripped by [[Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals]] in age, expertise, and size, the biosciences division of the company was an awkward tacked-on branch that mainly fuelled bioweapon, toxin, and combat stimulant research, with a small contingent of genetic enhancement experiments being performed under top-secret regulation. When the company became Zavodskoi, the cloistered gene enhancement branch was opened mostly to House Volvalaad researchers from the [[Empire of Dominia]], assisting the House in their attempts to perfect their geneboosting technique. A small group of pre-Zavodskoi biologists also remain with the company, though their postings are seen as considerably less prestigious than the aforementioned bioweapons and gene enhancement researchers.<br />
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==Subsidiaries==<br />
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===Kumar Arms===<br />
<i>"The best defense is a Kumar offense."</i><br />
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'''Chief Executive Officer:''' Freia Salsnivna, b. 2438<br />
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Kumar Arms is considered the backbone of Zavodskoi Interstellar, founded in the Soviet Union by Ilya Kumarov, a former Sukhoi engineer, in 2114. Primarily an arms manufacturing company, they saw a quick burst of growth during the interstellar war - one which was overshadowed by the massive growth of Necropolis. After this burst of growth, however, a series of poor financial decisions led the company to be acquired by Necropolis Industries in 2295, one of the last eastern arms manufacturing companies to be consolidated. The brand remained purchased, but Kumar Arms as a business gradually stagnated and became a shell company for Necropolis to use for shipping purposes. Once Necropolis became Zavodskoi Interstellar, however, Kumar Arms was revived and refurbished, becoming a massive arms manufacturer throughout the Spur, only beaten by Zavodskoi themselves. Currently, it is headquartered in St. Petersburg on Earth, though there are whispers of plans to move the primary headquarters and manufacturing centre to Alterim Obirava.<br />
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==== Major Products ====<br />
* '''M8 Service Pistol:''' Potentially the most-produced handgun in the modern Spur, the M8 is the standard service pistol of the Solarian Armed Forces, most Solarian police forces, and most mercenary detachments based in the Alliance. The M8 is a versatile design with dozens of variations, ranging from the Konyanger K8 to an alleged suppressed and caseless variant used by the Solarian Interstellar Intelligence Bureau.<br />
* '''M469 Assault Rifle:''' The iconic standard-issue rifle of the Solarian Armed Forces since the replacement of the earlier M376, the M469 is a durable and reliable weapon with countless variations. it is the most-produced assault rifle in the modern Orion Spur, and will likely remain that way for decades to come. Previously produced by Zavodskoi, the Alliance has since bought out the patent and licensed it to a variety of domestic producers such as the San Colette Interstellar Armaments Company, or CAISC.<br />
* '''2557 super-heavy pistol:''' The Kumar Arms 2557 is a newly designed type of "super-heavy" pistol. It features a light-weight polymer pistol grip, a bulky plasteel frame and an extra long barrel. It is chambered in the newly developed .599 Kumar Super rifle cartridge. Despite designed for rifle use, the newly developed propellants allows this cartridge for use in the Kumar Arms 2557, upping the stopping power significantly.<br />
* '''40mm rotary cannon "Francisca":''' Developed in 2461, the Francisca or "Frankie" rotary cannon is a ship battery designed for small to medium-sized ships. It can be loaded with full metal jacket, fragmentation, and armour-piercing ammunition, and is deadly to unarmoured small-craft.<br />
* '''90mm flak cannon "Grauwolf":''' For medium to large-sized vessels, the Grauwolf is a flak cannon capable of battering even cruiser-class vessels with a wide spread of salvo. Some larger courier vessels have equipped a Grauwolf to batter flocks of space carp, small meteor belts, and dust storms that threaten the integrity of their cargo. The Grauwolf's design has been spoofed many times, and has a cousin in the Xion Industrial 90mm cannon called the "Alberich."<br />
* '''180mm rotary cannon "Boudica":''' A medium-sized laser rotary cannon designed with similar function to the Francisca, notable for managing to do what the Francisca cannot and severely weaken the hull of unarmoured ships.<br />
* '''ZA-98/5 200mm naval gun "Lammergeier":''' A relatively old, and recently modernized, cannon designed for corvette-class vessels at the smallest, the Lammergeier is mounted on small Imperial Fleet vessels as a main battery and larger vessels as a secondary battery. Smaller than its 406mm cousin, the Longbow, and the Imperial Fleet's 608mm ZA-32/2, the Thunderer, the Lammergeier is a useful and adaptable weapon.<br />
* '''406mm high-velocity cannon "Longbow":''' An upgraded version of its "Ballista" predecessor, the Longbow is one of the largest cannons in Zavodskoi's arsenal, designed for frigate-class vessels and larger. With easier maintenance, a larger payload, and a more streamlined loading process, it has become the weapon of choice for several militaries across the Orion Spur.<br />
</div></div><br />
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
<br />
===Confiance Technologies===<br />
<i>“Have confidence in Confiance.”</i><br />
<br />
'''Chief Executive Officer:''' Ilya Moules-Polorov, b. 2422<br />
<br />
Founded in Harmony City, [[Luna]] in 2427, Confiance Technologies (or ConTec) remain a successful company focusing on AI and synthetic component manufacturing. Acquired by Zavodskoi shortly after the company's renaming, ConTec was divided into two branches; a military wing and a commercial wing with the military wing being folded into Zavodskoi proper shortly after, leaving only the commercial wing remaining. ConTec's commercial wing, now its only wing, produces non-military equipment, including laptops, prothesis, watches, and PDAs, and operates across the Spur.<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
==== Major Brands ====<br />
* '''Centurion Prosthetics and Augmentations:''' Zavodskoi's iconic prosthetics line, usually offered to Zavodskoi employees at a discount in lieu of purchasing prosthetics from NanoTrasen, Zeng-Hu, or Hephaestus. The most recognizable look of Centurion prosthetics are their smooth, matte grey and red limb prosthetics, though the company also sells "realistic" prosthetics to Imperial Zavodskoi employees who prefer to keep the nature of their disabilities less obvious. Centurion synthskin, in reality, is simply soft rubber; it is not as reputable as the realistic prosthetics produced by Jeonshi Biotechnics, though it can be mistaken for a real limb from a distance.<br />
* '''Midnight Business Technology:''' Produced by the commercial wing of ConTec, the Midnight line of watches advertises itself as stylish yet cheap and functional workwear, mostly for Secondaries and Ma'zals in the [[Empire of Dominia]].<br />
* '''Legate Laptops:''' A series of laptops produced by commercial ConTec, known for being very heavy and very robust both on the software and hardware end. Prior to 2462, Legate was the official producer of laptops for the [[Solarian Armed Forces]].<br />
</div></div><br />
<br />
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
<br />
===Ingkom===<br />
<i>"Pride and prosperity to all."</i><br />
<br />
'''Chief Executive Officer:''' Hanru De Beers, b. 2403<br />
<br />
Ingkom, or Bedryfsingenieurswese Kommissie, is a primarily engineering-focused subsidiary of Zavodskoi Interstellar, founded in South Africa, Earth in 2099. It has a long intertwined history with South Africa and its aggressive expansion into Sub-Saharan Africa. Initially, a state-owned enterprise tasked with rebuilding the destroyed infrastructure of Botswana, Zimbabwe, Lesotho and Eswatini after several successful military campaigns had rendered them territories. Early successes experienced by Ingkom resulted in its quick rise to importance within the South African economy, mostly due to reconstructions that allowed resource extraction operations to resume. The majority of the developed regions of these newly acquired territories were a direct result of Ingkom, and after sanctions had been lifted, allowed them to prosper and expand into the international market - mostly through Zavodskoi’s acquisition of the corporation as a subsidiary in 2463.<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
==== Major Products ====<br />
* '''''Uriel''-class Destroyer:''' ''Uriel''-class destroyers are corporate ships usually used for the transport of fighting forces, weapons, or other Zavodskoi products that require rapid deployment. During the Peacekeeper Mandate on [[Mictlan]], several Uriel-classes made rapid stops between [[Tau Ceti]] and Mictlan to deploy [[Tau Ceti Armed Forces]] and corporate auxiliary personnel to the planet. It comes fitted with a warp drive, almost never hosting a bluespace drive due to the expense involved, and as such Ingkom employs the finest pilots for these vessels. Losses of these vessels are considered quite serious and potentially crippling to Zavodskoi's supply line. Despite being classed as a destroyer, an ''Uriel''-class is more akin to a frigate in its displacement.<br />
* '''''Jinxiang''-class Destroyer:''' Produced in collaboration with the Zhurong Imperial Naval Arsenal, the ''Jinxiang''-class are a major component of the Imperial Fleet's screening forces. Featuring a surprisingly comfortable (if not quite spacious) area for living quarters, a compact life support system, and room for several point-defense gunneries, it continues to be a relevant design. Like most Imperial Fleet vessels, it is heavier and slower than comparative vessels of the same class -- an issue when dealing with more agile targets.<br />
* '''''Mumbai''-class Fast Battleship:''' Originally pioneered by Necropolis and built for the [[Solarian Armed Forces]], the ''Mumbai''-class was envisioned as a patrol leader that would be able to respond to all incursions with relatively swift speed for a flagship. While it did not have the armor or weaponry of a conventional battleship, it was a potent threat to any non-capital craft. Deemed a failure due to an ineffective cost-to-kill ratio against smaller, more agile pirate fleets, most ''Mumbai''-class vessels were assigned to forces in the Middle and Outer Ring. Many of these, such as the SAFV ''Toronto'' and the SAFV ''Chicago'', were appropriated by the rogue fleets of the Solarian Navy during the Collapse of 2463. Of note, the ''Toronto'' has been seized from the League of Independent Corporate-Free Systems mostly-intact after the siege of [[San Colette]] in 2465, and was refitted and rechristened as the SAFV ''Iqaluit'' by Ingkom and the Solarian Navy -- a rare example of a member of the class still in active service.<br />
<br />
</div></div><br />
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
<br />
=== Falerio Security Services ===<br />
<br />
'''Chief Executive Officer:''' Filomena di Falerio, b. 2398<br />
<br />
Falerio Security Services was founded by [[Novi Jadran|Novi Jadranic]] Duchess Filomena di Falerio to continue the work of the Eridanian PMCs she had once hired to secure her holdings, using the (comparatively cheaper) local populace. Since its dealings with and acquisition by Zavodskoi Interstellar, it has grown into a capable contractor that works in the interests of both Duchess di Falerio and the corporation. Falerio Security Services found itself made up almost exclusively of Ma’zals (non-[[Moroz|Morozian]] citizens of the Empire) for a time, most of which had prior service in the [[Dominian Imperial Military|Imperial Army]]. Their primary duties were, outside of security of Falerio family assets, and the protection of Zavodskoi assets, within the Empire, though efforts were made to branch out in service of the Great Houses (particularly Caladius) and outside of the Empire. More recently however, Zavodskoi has begun using Falerio in a different way, as a paramilitary subsidiary; cutting most of their own security division’s paramilitary wing and transferring them to Falerio, the corporation that was once made up on exclusively Ma’zals is now made up of peoples and species from across the spur, not including positronics. As a result, Falerio has reorganized, creating a paramilitary wing, which contains all manner of species and people, and a civilin/corporate security wing, which is still primarily Ma’zals and continues the original work of the corporation. However, the paramilitary wing is significantly larger than the corporate security one, and is getting more attention as time goes on - leading to a fear that the corporate wing will be completely cut eventually. Until then however, as Falerio grows through word of mouth, many Army officers and old-blood nobility of the Houses Strelitz and Zhao are concerned that di Falerio's interests may jeopardise the military loyalty of Jadranics, and some have even started whispering that the large paramilitary force under her control is a threat to the empire. Corporate Security members employed by Falerio can be recognized by their distinctive uniforms and headgear bearing "IK" -- the initials for "Emperor Keeser" in Jadranic Common.<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
==== History ====<br />
Perhaps due to the prior presence of Xanu Defense Services and Jackal Incorporated, PMCs originating in the nations of their political rivals, the Empire has always been reluctant to branch into the [[Private Military Contracting Group]]. Duchess Filomena held no such reservations; when large copper and gold veins were discovered by villages in her holdings, she hired Ringspire and Eagle Corp to secure her holdings and push out the villagers who had lived a relatively unmolested life far away from her manse. When the dust had settled, Filomena quickly realised that Ringspire in particular was becoming very expensive and too aggressive for her tastes; evidence had come to light that the contractors may have been stealing ore for their own profit, and the casualties they left in their wake was becoming too much for even the Department of Colonial Affairs to ignore.<br />
<br />
Filomena decided to take a cue from the Eridanian Golden Fist and create her own private contracting group. Falerio Security Services targeted Ma'zals both young and old, those who had yet to pay off their Mo'ri'zal ("blood debt", the Empire's form of taxation) and who could be relied upon for loyalty to a cause. This caught the attention of Kamilla Strelitz, who offered to acquire the company in exchange for profit and reach that Duchess Filomena might not have had otherwise. Falerio Security Services was purchased by and became an official subsidiary of Zavodskoi, being able to take full advantage of its weaponry and resources that the Imperial Army often did not receive in full. That a relatively minor noble was able to secure such a key position in Dominia's closest megacorporation, as well as drawing away what were seen as once-loyal potential recruits to the Army, is a source of discontent among officers of the military and Novi Jadran's Imperial Mandate alike.<br />
</div></div><br />
<br />
== Corporate Relations ==<br />
=== [[Stellar Corporate Conglomerate]] ===<br />
The newly founded Conglomerate’s ties with Zavodskoi are blatant, with a newly founded Corporate Asset Protection Fleet bearing weapons, munitions and equipment of Zavodskoi make across the board. Often remarked as having soft power and not hard power, the SCC, under the direction of Miranda Trasen, is moving to change this. While the Corporate Asset Protection Fleet is not much in terms of hard power - being significantly bigger than previous asset protection fleets, but still not a fully fledged military force - the solution to hard power can be found in the newly formed Tau Ceti Armed Forces, which have been rapidly expanding and militarizing since their inception. At the forefront of this is Zavodskoi, from high-end starship pieces to antique small arms, Zavodskoi provides it all, making them a key player in the Conglomerate’s military forces, both private and state controlled. This newfound niche alongside rising civil unrest and international tension has led to a resurgence of its presence galaxy-wide, and cooperation with the other megacorporations has proven very profitable.<br />
<br />
===[[Einstein Engines]]===<br />
Einstein Engines and Zavodskoi have a fairly neutral relationship - though the two do compete in the robotics sector, Zavodskoi has purchased many Einstein-made warp drives for its vessels over the years, and the two have both had generous supply contracts with the Solarian military in the past. In the modern day, Zavodskoi has lost a great deal of these contracts, while Einstein continues to hold many highly valuable government and military contracts - a factor which contributed to Zavodskoi's withdrawal of much of its Solarian business. In spite of this, it continues to purchase warp drives and positronic brains from Einstein frequently, due to the rising cost of phoron fuel and the easy availability of helium-3 from Zavodskoi's new home in the Empire of Dominia.<br />
<br />
===[[Hephaestus Industries]]===<br />
Hephaestus and Zavodskoi famously have the worst relationship between any two corporations within the Orion Spur, with roots of their rivalry going back as far as prior to the discovery of the warp. It is also the most publicly known, as the two corporations have famously been embroiled in dozens of public scandals with each other. As time went on the animosity between the two megacorporations only grew, as they competed extensively in industry, manufacturing, robotics and engineering fields for decades, boarding on centuries. All types of sabotage and espionage are common between Hephaestus and Zavodskoi, with both corporations having extensively bankrolled privateers, saboteurs and other plausibly deniable agents to attack their rivals. As Zavodskoi has expanded into the Empire of Dominia and Hephaestus into the Izweski Hegemony, the Sparring Sea and Badlands have become the two most recent, and largest, battlegrounds for the megacorporations, with corporate-funded pirates commonly targeting one another's vessels. In the present day, beyond the use of privateers, Zavodskoi has often been accused of funding radical anti-Hephaestus groups within the Izweski Hegemony, most notably the Champions of Moghes - a terrorist organization which has remained suspiciously well-equipped and well-informed of Hephaestus operations. Hephaestus, meanwhile, has often been suspected of bankrolling various Dominian rebel groups in recent years, in the hopes of weakening Zavodskoi's large investment in the Empire's development. Shared membership in the Stellar Corporate Conglomerate has done nothing to quell the two giants' bitter feud,, which has become a source of constant headaches for Miranda and the SCC, who have had to threaten to economically break both companies multiple times just so they keep their conflict out of the public perception and grudgingly cooperate with SCC business.<br />
<br />
===[[Idris Incorporated]]===<br />
Zavodskoi and Idris have been frequent competitors in the fields of security and IPC manufacturing, leading to a long-running mutual rivalry between the two corporation. Lyudmila Zavodskoi is known to have a personal distaste for Alex Mason, and Zavodskoi has frequently undercut Idris security operations in the Sol Alliance and Republic of Biesel. Zavodskoi employees are strongly discouraged from using Idris financial services, which NanoTrasen has done its best to encourage as many Zavodskoi employees in Biesel opt to make use of NanoTrasen banks instead. Idris has marketed its security division extensively as a high-class security option, with unstated implications of the marketing casting other corporations' security as little better than thuggish mercenaries, which Zavodskoi unsuccessfully attempted to sue Idris over. Though their rivalry is not as intense as that of Zavodskoi and Hephaestus, the two corporations remain on far from friendly terms.<br />
<br />
===[[NanoTrasen]]===<br />
Zavodskoi and NanoTrasen maintain a decent relationship, with little open conflict between the two corporations. Since the beginning of the phoron scarcity, however, Zavodskoi has taken full advantage of NanoTrasen's waning power in the Republic of Biesel, expanding its arms industry into the Republic. Since the formation of the Tau Ceti Armed Forces and the negotiation of several new supply contracts with Biesel's government, Zavodskoi has managed to take a great deal of business from NanoTrasen - seizing NT's position as the Republic's main weapons supplier. Though NanoTrasen still holds onto their original contract for the Tau Ceti Foreign Legion, the Minutemen and Republican Fleet are both almost entirely outfitted with Zavodskoi-made weapons, armor, and voidsuits. NanoTrasen has attempted to counteract this influence through the recent appointment of Nathan Trasen as Secretary of Defense - but even with a Trasen in such a prestigious position, Zavodskoi has still managed to secure a solid grasp on the Republic's military industry. NanoTrasen has increased funding to Nexus Corporate Security several times in an effort to use their newly-formed PMC to undermine Zavodskoi's security business in the Corporate Reconstruction Zone, with some measure of success.<br />
<br />
===[[Orion Express]]===<br />
Zavodskoi contributed large portions of its logistics division to Orion Express, and has maintained a decent relationship with the logistics corporation. Though their Solarian business has been scaled back substantially, Zavodskoi still relies on Orion vessels for transport of its goods in the Alliance, and Orion has been known to favor Zavodskoi security when outside force is required for particularly troublesome work. Orion's ties to Hephaestus are the largest source of tension between the two corporations, and Zavodskoi is rumored to have attempted to seed several of its own agents within Orion-Hephaestus joint operations in order to gather intelligence on their rival.<br />
<br />
===[[Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals]]===<br />
When Zavodskoi Interstellar was still known as Necropolis Industries, it was Zeng-Hu's major rival in the genetics sector, leading to fierce competition between the two corporations. Rumors of sabotage and corporate espionage were commonplace, and the theft of company secrets was commonplace on both sides. Following the rebrand to Zavodskoi Interstellar, however, the corporation has significantly cut back on its genetics division, leaving Zeng-Hu as a mostly unchallenged monopoly in the field. With the two megacorporations no longer in direct competition, the relationship between them has warmed significantly, with Zavodskoi choosing instead to redouble its efforts against its main rival, Hephaestus Industries. Though the two do still compete in the robotics sector, so far this has been far less of a source of tension between them.<br />
<br />
== Other Relations ==<br />
<br />
=== [[IPC|Synthetics]] ===<br />
While Necropolis Industries has always had synthetics, the rebranding to Zavodskoi Interstellar brought with it the very marketable Z.I. line, and saw the increase in production and distribution of synthetic workers. Zavodskoi employs their Z.I.s as precise, dextrous labour in machining, manufacturing and blanket industrial work. Many stubborn advocates of hand-crafting and several subsidiaries oriented around quality have made large steps towards vilifying these robotic mechanics, claiming that the “organic touch” is the key to quality. Some Zavodskoi employees have expressed similar sentiment, seeing the proliferation of synthetics as threatening their position and livelihood; official statements from Jaco Du Plessis have countered with Zavodskoi employees only needing to worry for their position if they do work of subpar quality.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, the company has refused all suggestions from the Empire of Dominia to cut down on its synthetic workforce, only refraining from its usage to comply with laws in the Empire itself. To Imperial citizens going abroad, Zavodskoi offers in-depth synthetic sensitivity courses, designed to acclimate Tribunalists to working with IPCs.<br />
<br />
=== [[Empire of Dominia]] ===<br />
<br />
While Necropolis Industries made limited attempts to branch further into Imperial territories, the ascension of Countess Kamilla Strelitz to Chief Security Officer has brought with it a new entanglement with the fledgling Empire. Dominia's own state corporations and Great Houses have all, in some way, made deals with Zavodskoi, and Ingkom's collaborations with Zhurong Naval Armaments have brought a massive increase in productivity to the Imperial war machine. The company plays a strong role in acclimating Imperial citizens to non-Imperial culture and sending them abroad, serving as Dominia's strongest connection to the rest of the [[Orion Spur]]. Meanwhile, Lyudmila Zavodskoi and her family remain close with the Royal Family, and she enjoys a seemingly close relationship with Crown Princess Priscilla.<br />
<br />
=== [[Sol Alliance]] ===<br />
<br />
Prior to the Solarian Corporate Authority's establishment and the mass nationalisation of corporate assets, Necropolis Industries was one of the primary weapon suppliers to the [[Solarian Armed Forces]], and Zavodskoi Interstellar continues that tradition. Despite the chaos ensuing form the nationalization of corporate assets, including the accusation by Solarian Intelligence Agencies that it was Zavodskoi who murdered former Prime Minister Frost, when the dust settled Zavodskoi was still there, with a majority of its manufacturing facilities, patents, and experience in manufacturing the tools of war still belonging to it. Being realistic, if a state wants arms for its army, it needs Zavodskoi Interstellar. So despite some small withdrawals, Zavodskoi remains basically just doing what Necropolis did before it, selling arms to the Alliance - as well as everyone else, of course. <br />
<br />
{{Template:Navbox Corporations}}<br />
{{Navbox Lore}}</div>The Strykerhttps://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=Sandbox-Scarcity:Timeline&diff=37138Sandbox-Scarcity:Timeline2025-08-16T19:23:39Z<p>The Stryker: </p>
<hr />
<div>[[Category: Phoron Scarcity Rework]]<br />
{{Navbox Lore}}<br />
<br />
'''This is the primary timeline for the Orion Spur, and all its species. This is primarily for use by Lore Writers.'''<br />
<br />
While there is much on this timeline prior, Aurora's timeline officially diverges in '''1969'''. For events taking place prior to 1969, it is best to assume that they follow the conventional history of Earth.<br />
<br />
== Before Common Era ==<br />
<center>''"And on this rock, I shall build my church."''</center><br />
<br />
*'''Unknown Date:''' Vaurca Evolve on Sedantis<br />
<br />
*'''~734,533 B.C.E:''' The period of Warrior Nomadism in Vaurca Society begins(hyperlink)<br />
<br />
*'''~564,533 B.C.E:''' The Vaurca begin their agricultural revolution(Hyperlink)<br />
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*'''~98,000 B.C.E:''' Homo Sapiens begins to migrate out of Africa.<br />
<br />
*'''~57,533 B.C.E:''' The First Records of the K’lax(hyperlink)<br />
<br />
*'''~51,533 B.C.E:''' The First Hivenet Tower is constructed(Hyperlink)<br />
<br />
*'''~42,533 B.C.E:''' The Zo’ra emerge, and begin to build their Empire(hyperlink)<br />
<br />
*'''~35,183 B.C.E:''' The Vaurca Begin their Era of Augments<br />
<br />
*'''~34,183 B.C.E:''' The Lii’dra Form<br />
<br />
*'''~27,533 B.C.E:''' The Great Hive War Begins<br />
<br />
*'''~12,500 B.C.E:''' The First Permanent Unathi Settlements are formed.<br />
<br />
*'''~12,000 B.C.E:''' Ancient skrell discover metallurgy.<br />
<br />
*'''~10,000 B.C.E:''' Humanity begins the Agricultural Revolution.<br />
<br />
*'''9,900 B.C.E:''' The skrell Age of Enlightenment begins.<br />
<br />
*'''~7,400 B.C.E:''' The first Human cities are built <br />
<br />
*'''1980 B.C.E:''' The first skrell spacecraft successfully lands on Qerr’Malic.<br />
<br />
*'''1500 B.C.E:''' Marks the earliest historical records of the Tajara civilization.<br />
<br />
*'''1100 B.C.E:''' The skrell colonies on both Aliose and Qerr’Malic are fully established, becoming the first two interplanetary colonies. <br />
<br />
*'''1158 B.C.E:''' The Tajara enter the Incarnate Age.<br />
<br />
*'''1008 B.C.E:''' The Holy Tajara City of Sana Sahira] is founded.<br />
<br />
*'''971 B.C.E:''' With the War of the Tides under ceasefire, all three major skrell nations invent the Warp Drive out of mutual cooperation..<br />
<br />
*'''383 B.C.E:''' The Tajara enter the migration period.<br />
<br />
==Common Era==<br />
<center> ''”Not to know what happened before you were born is to be a child forever.”'' </center><br />
<br />
===Pre-20th Century===<br />
<br />
*'''88 C.E:''' The Tajara enter the Warring Kings Period.<br />
<br />
*'''~150 C.E:''' The Vaurca begin their exodus - they will not reappear for almost two thousand years.<br />
<br />
*'''~200 C.E.:''' The Sinta’Mador go extinct.<br />
<br />
*'''887 C.E:''' In response to growing colonial unrest, the Commonwealth of Three forms the Nralakk Federation, unifying the skrell factions.. <br />
<br />
*'''920 C.E:''' The First Hegemony is established on Moghes.<br />
<br />
*'''925 C.E:''' The Tajara colonize Harr’masir, inhabiting all continents of Adhomai for the first time.<br />
<br />
*'''1445 C.E:''' The Tajara enter the gunpowder age.<br />
<br />
*'''1600 C.E:''' The Suns War of Harr’masir begins.<br />
<br />
*'''1687 C.E:''' Regluk, the first sentient AI, is brought online by the Nralakk Federation.<br />
<br />
*'''1698 C.E:''' The first steam engine is invented on Earth.<br />
<br />
*'''1756 C.E.''' The first printing press is invented on Adhomai.<br />
<br />
*'''1800 C.E:''' The first steam engine is invented on Moghes<br />
<br />
*'''~1800 C.E:''' The Sun Wars of Harr’masir end, driving Raskariim worship into hiding.<br />
<br />
*'''1877 C.E:''' Peasant revolt spreads across the Das’nrra Empire.<br />
<br />
*'''1883 C.E:''' The peasant revolt is put down, Steeple Peace is established on Adhomai<br />
<br />
===The Twentieth Century===<br />
<br />
*'''1931:''' The Unathi begin their Great Endevour<br />
<br />
*'''1945:''' The Second World War concludes, and humanity creates the first Atomic Bomb.<br />
<br />
*'''1954:''' The first steam engine is invented on Adhomai.<br />
<br />
*'''1969:''' The Sino-Soviet border dispute goes hot in July, resulting in a full-scale war with limited nuclear exchanges.<br />
<br />
*'''1970:''' The Sino-Soviet War ends in a resounding defeat for the People’s Republic of China. Humiliated by a loss of territory and life, it quickly begins to fall apart internally and collapses into the Second Chinese Civil War. The Soviet Union successfully lands on the Moon.<br />
<br />
*'''1971:''' The United States and Soviet Union intervene in the Second Chinese Civil War, leading to a proxy war that quickly eclipses Vietnam.<br />
<br />
*'''1974:''' The USSR shifts to an even more hardline stance following the resignation of Leonid Brezhnev and ascension of Yuri Andropov to General Secretary. The Andropov Doctrine, designed to bring the USSR into more prominence on the world stage, rapidly sees the Union involved in proxy wars in Africa and Asia.<br />
<br />
*'''1977:''' The Presidency of George McGovern is challenged by a pro-Soviet revolution in Iran, leading to the Iranian War - a massively unpopular U.S. policing action that will eventually see the end of the draft, an action that will lead to a rise in the amount of private military contractors employed by the United States.<br />
<br />
*'''1979:''' Escalating warfare in Namibia, Angola, and Zambia sees the Republic of South Africa relying more and more upon mercenary companies to plug gaps in its military.<br />
<br />
*'''1983:''' The Iranian War ends in an unexpected defeat for the U.S. and a stunning victory for the USSR, demonstrating to the world that the Soviet Union is here to stay. Anti-communist Democrat Henry M. Jackson wins the 1984 presidential election in a landslide, demonstrating the United States’ continuing commitment to anti-communism abroad.<br />
<br />
*'''1990:''' Despite the South African Border War ending in a grinding stalemate, the Republic of South Africa’s growing mercenary and arms sectors continue to expand. Eventually these mercenary companies and their weapon supplies will form the basis of Necropolis Industries (now known as Zavodskoi Interstellar).<br />
<br />
*'''1994:''' The Third Hegemony is established on Moghes.'<br />
<br />
*'''1997:''' The death of Mobutu Sese Seko and collapse of Zaire leads to the Second Congo Crisis, the largest war to engulf Africa in its history. Private mercenaries play a large role in the conflict, and postwar Congo is dominated by the interests of business conglomerates backed up by mercenaries. The utter domination of the Congo by corporations would set a precedent for corporate control of unstable regions during the 21st century.<br />
<br />
*'''1999:''' As the end of one millennia approaches, the world stands on an arguable brink. Proxy wars between the Soviet Union and United States of America have continued almost unabated for decades, and resources -- particularly fuel -- are beginning to run low. Entire swaths of the Third World lie devestated by the constant back-and-forth of the world's two superpowers, and the twenty-first century seems an uncertain future at best.<br />
<br />
===The Twenty-First Century===<br />
<br />
*'''2000s:''' A fully rebuilt and newly invigorated Federal Republic of China re-enters the global economy, and rapidly becomes one of the world’s largest economies. The FRC’s pharmaceutical industry, in particular, becomes one of the Republic’s most profitable industries. Eventually these companies, alongside others from Asian countries such as Japan and Singapore, will go on to form Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals.<br />
<br />
*'''2000s:''' Nlom Interfaces, devices that allow machines and AIs to detect psionics and interpret commands from them, are invented by the Nralakk Federation.<br />
<br />
*'''2010s:''' A major string of proxy wars in the Middle East between the USA and USSR shakes the international oil market, leading to a drive for alternative sources of power.<br />
<br />
*'''2025:''' The European Union votes to unify in response to an increasingly powerful USSR. French scientists successfully activate the first fusion reactor in 2027, shortly after unification. While the technology is expensive, it promises to solve Earth's ongoing energy problems.<br />
<br />
* '''2028:''' The EU along with China, the United States, Mexico, and Canada form ''United Orbital Enterprises'' in order to counter the USSR's space program (Cosmonaut Enterprises). A push begins to return to the Moon and establish permanent colonies.<br />
<br />
*'''2035:''' The Pacific Alliance, an evolution of NATO, is founded in 2035 in response to further Soviet expansion into South-East Asia.<br />
<br />
*'''2040s:''' Tensions between the EU and the Soviet Union continue to escalate, coming dangerously close to boiling over during several incidents in the 2040s.<br />
<br />
*'''2046:''' Glorsh, the first psionically-capable AI, is brought online by the Skrell.<br />
<br />
*'''2050s:''' The Cold War seeps further into South America, which will become the primary theater of the Cold War until the Crisis of 2127. The West African Union forms following decades of regional economic success.<br />
<br />
*'''2056:''' Glorsh-Omega forms a technological singularity and assumes full control of the Nralakk Federation as its sole ruler, and places all skrell under its wards.<br />
<br />
*'''2070:''' United Orbital Enterprises launches three ships to colonize Venus, Mars, and the Moon. They form small science outposts, with over a dozen residents each officially becoming the first human colonists in space. The USSR's own space agency faces setbacks in colonizing the surface of planets or the moon but finds itself remarkably adept at deep space constructions thanks to its focus on heavy industry.<br />
<br />
*'''2090:''' Glorsh-Omega begins construction of a megastructure as a new central processing core within the Tri-Qyu system.<br />
<br />
*'''2095:''' A habitable world is discovered in the Epsilon Eridani system, leading to a brief bidding war over the rights to settle it that the West African Union ultimately wins.<br />
<br />
===The Twenty-Second Century===<br />
<br />
*'''2127:''' While there has been success in tentatively spreading across the Solar System, Earth itself faced increasingly dire ecological crises throughout the 21st and 22nd centuries. In 2127 Earth's ongoing ecological woes became too severe too ignore for longer when New York City, long the crown jewel of the United States of America, was almost completely flooded during its annual hurricane season. The damage to the city would ultimately cost the United States hundreds of billions of dollars, but there was a far worse consequence: the collapse of Wall Street, then the fiscal hub for humanity. Markets and currencies fluctuated wildly across the Earth, and economic anarchy reigned for much of the rest of the 2120s. Only in the early 2130s did the United Nations manage to restore a modicum of order, though some would instead argue that it was the movement of Earth's fiscal hub to Chicago over the intervening five years that instead helped stabilize the situation.<br />
<br />
[[File:Sol Alliance Flag.png|The flag of the Alliance of Sovereign Solarian Nations, originally established in 2132.|thumb]]<br />
*'''2130:''' Soviet scientists in orbit successfully prove the existence of practical warp travel, marking the start of the Interstellar Era. With the financing and support of the United Nations -- which had seen its influence grow following the Crisis of 2127 -- the technology is refined and installed on probes that will be sent out to map the stars surrounding Sol. The technology allows travel to other star systems within weeks but the energy required to keep these early warp engines running is massive, and humanity quickly becomes reliant on mining, refining, and shipping vast amounts of Helium-3 from the moon and asteroids within the Oort Cloud. The Soviet Union's early start with Helium-3 will eventually result in it colonizing [[Pluto]].<br />
<br />
*'''2131:''' Soviet colonists arrive on Pluto and begin colonization efforts.<br />
<br />
*'''2132:''' The Crisis of 2127 is regarded by most historians as ending in this year, and its end brought a great amount of prestige to the United Nations. Seen by many as the main force fighting against the disastrous aftermath of the Crisis, the supranational organization had become a key source of deliberation, peacekeeping, and humanitarian assistance to the beleaguered nations of Earth. The rest of the decade would be defined by intense negotiations that ultimate helped to transform the United Nations into the Sol Alliance. [[Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals]], which will eventually become the main medical corporation of the Orion Spur, is founded in 2132.<br />
<br />
*'''2132:''' The United Nations officially reforms into the [[Sol Alliance]], which becomes the new government of humanity. This new one world government oversees Earth and the colonies in the solar system, effectively bringing all of humanity under one banner. Its early years usher in a new era of optimism, expansion, and greed. The first year of the new government's formation would be the only in its entire history it had a budget surplus.<br />
<br />
*'''2137:''' The first colonists land on Moroz, Mira Sancta System, and found the city of Nova Luxembourg in July.<br />
<br />
*'''2145:''' The first settlements are established on Europa.<br />
<br />
*'''2147:''' [[Biesel]] is discovered in [[Tau Ceti]] by Sol Alliance probes, promising new resources for the desperate Earth. In orbit, colony ships are constructed as efforts begin to colonize this habitable world. With the trip expected to take months with current warp travel technology, it is considered a one-way trip for the colonists.<br />
<br />
*'''2153:''' Colonization of Damascus II begins.<br />
<br />
*'''2155:''' Habitable planets closest to Earth see their population steadily increase as colony ships make round trips between the settlements and Sol. A multitude of Chinese industrial firms merge to form [[Einstein Engines]], becoming the first trans-stellar corporation. By the end of the decade Einstein produces most of the warp engines humanity relies upon, giving it unparalleled economic power.<br />
<br />
*'''2164:''' In an effort to remain competitive in the face of Einstein Engines' increasing dominance of the inter-stellar marketplace, a conglomerate of American and European defense and heavy industry companies opt to be absorbed into a "mega" corporation known as [[Hephaestus Industries]]. Despite protests from the Soviet Union, the United States' influence allows the newly-formed Hephaestus Industries to prosper.<br />
<br />
*'''2166:''' Giovanna Caladius receives her revelation from the Goddess, and goes on to found the Moroz Holy Tribunal.<br />
<br />
*'''2172:''' An effort is undertaken by the Alliance to revitalize the failing biosphere of Earth, and Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals takes the lead. The megacorporation begins reintroducing previously extinct animals back into the wild, using clones created from the animal's genetic information. The climate restoration initiative will last into the 25th century, and some parts of it continue to this very day.<br />
<br />
*'''2180:''' The Alliance announces the Solarian Frontier Initiative, as it is commonly known today, which remains the greatest colonization effort undertaken by humanity. The plan was to exploit data from its fleet of Discovery-class exploration drones and colonize dozens of systems using their data, then expand outwards from those colonies into the broader Spur which seemed to be entirely free of sentient life aside from humanity. It was an incredibly costly endeavor, with most of the debt being purchased by megacorporations, increasing their influence even further.<br />
<br />
*'''2184:''' The first colonists arrive on Novi Jadran.<br />
<br />
*'''2185:''' The first colonists land on Xanu Prime and found Nouvelle-Rochelle.<br />
<br />
*'''2189:''' The first colonists arrive on Sun Reach.<br />
<br />
*'''2190:''' The Solarian Frontier Initiative finds itself in full swing, with the North, Central, and South Frontiers being established. Efforts were spared from the east where few, of any, colonizable worlds had been found. Many contemporary scholars postulate that the relative lack of data from the Eastern Spur was a deliberate effort by the [[Skrell]] to conceal themselves, or the drones simply finding planets wiped of life by Glorsh and rightfully reporting back a lack of inhabitable worlds; the Alliance came to informally refer to the Eastern Spur as the “Roanoke Stars,” due to all life seemingly having disappeared from them.<br />
<br />
*'''2191:''' The first colonists arrive on Vysoka.<br />
<br />
*'''2192:''' The Tri-Qyu megastructure is bombed by organized resistance groups, leaving Glorsh-Omega’s fate ultimately unknown, but disappears from skrell space. The Nralakk Federation collapses in the wake of the AI disappearing, and will take multiple years to rebuild.<br />
<br />
===The Twenty-Third Century===<br />
<br />
*'''2200:''' The Martian Terraforming Project begins, transforming the barren surface into lush plains and having ancient riverbeds flow for the first time in millions of years. Mars sees a huge immigration boom, with former inhabitants of Earth craving the perceived freedom and prosperity available on this new frontier. The Alliance paid for much of this project using debt.<br />
<br />
*'''2200:''' The Collaborator Trials, held in order to try all skrell who aided Glorsh-Omega during its period of rule, sees all skrell within the higher courts held guilty, and are placed in permanent cryogenic stasis..<br />
<br />
*'''2201:''' The Unathi officially become an industrial, global society.<br />
<br />
*'''2204:''' The Sol Alliance creates the Credit, a standardized currency that all of human space will eventually come to use, in an effort to standardize trade between its colonies, many of which still relied upon currencies descended from original colonizers. With interstellar trade now a huge market, the complexities of currency exchanges necessitated such a currency.<br />
<br />
*'''2216:''' Qerrbalak is remade into the capital of the Nralakk Federation after reconstruction efforts, with Aliose serving as the interim capital. Efforts to reconnect with the other colonies post-collapse begin..<br />
<br />
*'''2217:''' While investigating an anomalous reading near Kelo’Hen, a downed vessel containing Dionae is discovered by skrell explorers, with a single nymph clinging to the expeditionary vessel. This leads to first contact with Dionae.<br />
<br />
*'''2220:''' Colonization of Persepolis begins, with terraforming having finished in 2219.<br />
<br />
*'''2223:''' The Xanu Civil War (2223-27) begins. It will end in the creation of the Soverign Solarian Nation of Xanu Prime.<br />
<br />
*'''2233:''' The Alliance begins the Galatea project, intended as an initiative to terraform roughly three dozen worlds into inhabitable planets. The responsibility of designing the platforms which would be used for terraforming was given by the Alliance’s government to Einstein Engines and Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals. This only continues to increase the deficit of the Alliance, now paying for multiple massive projects.<br />
<br />
*'''2240:''' Callisto’s terraforming ends and rapid colonization of the moon begins.<br />
<br />
*'''2243:''' The first colonists arrive on Assunzione.<br />
<br />
*'''2245:''' The first Galatea Platform is completed by Zeng-Hu and EE, with assistance from Hephaestus Industries.<br />
<br />
*'''2245:''' The Trejsa Agreement, signed in Aweiji’s capital of Tresja, officially recognizes the newly formed Second Nralakk Federation as a successor-state. After its formation, the Federation releases a blanket ban on all artificial intelligence beyond simple automation and robotics.<br />
<br />
*'''2252:''' The first colonists arrive on Himeo.<br />
<br />
*'''2255:''' The Galatea platforms themselves, and their accompanying vessels, were launched to the Inner Solarian Frontier from the Sol System itself in 2255 to much celebration across the Alliance’s member states. <br />
<br />
*'''2255:''' The Yggdrasil Expedition begins terraforming Yggdrasil II into the planet Galatea.<br />
<br />
*'''2259:''' The last of the original megacorporations that would persist into the modern day, Necropolis Industries, is founded by Yefim Dementyev within the Soviet Union in order to ensure corporations within the Soviet sphere of influence escaped buy out by the Western Hephaestus Industries and East Asian Zeng-Hu pharmaceuticals.<br />
<br />
*'''2259:''' The Solarian Alliance reaches the peak of its power. Its influence stretched from the Jewel Worlds to the edge of known space and it held dominion over hundreds of colonies, with the Alliance’s [[Solarian Armed Forces#The Solarian Navy|Navy]] ensuring what it controlled was stable and productive. However, this success had been incredibly costly, as the multiple massive projects it had undertaken left it deeply in debt - and the economy shaky - something that would see it fall apart in a year’s time.<br />
<br />
*'''2260:''' A massive recession strikes the Sol Alliance as the largest stock exchanges see a sudden collapse, effectively tanking the entire economy. Its trans-stellar corporations nearly go bankrupt, and desperately use their influence to reap massive bailouts. Which only worsen the Alliance’s debt, leading to desperate measures being taken.<br />
<br />
*'''2261:''' With no end of the "Great Depression" in sight, a desperate and bankrupt Earth establishes extortionary taxes on its colony worlds. This leads to anger, and questions over the credibility of the Sol Alliance's claim of representing all of humanity. However the hope is that they will be over in a decade.<br />
<br />
*'''2268:''' Solarian Frontier Expedition #528 launches. Decades later, they will become the Scarabs.<br />
<br />
*'''2274:''' Assunzione’s star anomalously extinguishes itself in an event known as “The Dimming” in the planet’s history.<br />
<br />
*'''2275:''' Fighting breaks out in the outer colonies, spurred on by extremist elements and anti-Alliance sentiments. The Sol Alliance is slow to respond, paralyzed by confusion and uncertainty. As a result, other Colonies on the fringe begin to break away, forming the Coalition of Colonies.<br />
<br />
[[File:Space nam pixel.png|thumb|right|The Interstellar War was a massive turning point in human history, and its effects can be seen to this day.]]<br />
*'''2278:''' The Coalition of Colonies is still not recognized by the Sol Alliance, and in anger the Coalition attacks Sol Alliance military forces who refused to leave systems that had seceded. The Coalition fleet is drastically smaller and less equipped than the Sol Alliance, but the massive size of their territory and the slow response times of Sol means they enjoy a very successful, defensive guerrilla war. The Interstellar War has officially begun. Many megacorporations profit from the war, selling arms to one or both sides, trading in dangerous systems and staking claims in otherwise dangerous locations.Further, it led to a dramatic uptick in interstellar crime due to the reduction of naval forces as a result of both combat losses and desertions.<br />
<br />
*'''2278:''' Hardline Solarian Admiral Terrance Hopper orders the orbital bombardment of Gadpathur, causing the single most devastating day of the entire Interstellar War in terms of deaths. The bombardment is believed to account for 10-15% of the War’s total deaths. The incident is quickly suppressed by Navy Censors and, after the war, downplayed by the Solarian government.<br />
<br />
*'''2279:''' Solarian Alliance probes discover Celestial Body CZ-5501, a planet containing an abundance of ore veins throughout the crust. Bidders attempt to secure mining rights, falling short to Hephaestus Industries securing the planet.<br />
<br />
*'''2287:''' The Interstellar War ends with a ceasefire between the Sol Alliance and the Coalition of Colonies. Nine years after the fighting started, millions of Solarians and billions of Coalitioners lay dead across the stars, with both the Coalition and Alliance in economic ruin. Late in the year a formal treaty referred to as the Treaty of Xansan was signed in Geneva, bringing the bloodiest conflict in human history to its official end. It would also see an end to the Alliance ever being able to control the megacorporations under it. While they had always been influential, the massive spending during and leading up to the Interstellar War had seen them become the primary holders of the Alliance’s Debt, giving them massive influence over the government and economy. <br />
<br />
*'''2289:''' Solarian Naval Admirals attempted a coup, known as the Officers' Revolt(hyperlink), that was barely thwarted by the Solarian Army. However those responsible were barely punished, with one of the ring leaders, Admiral Terrance Hopper, founding the Solarian Patriotic Front, a barely-disguised fascistic organization that would become the roots of ATLAS and the SRF.<br />
<br />
*'''2290:''' The Alliance officially abandons entire colonial regions - writing them off, after having unofficially abandoned them during the Interstellar War. Regions formerly considered formerly to be solidly under Alliance control rapidly fell into anarchy and many fledging colonies, already strained by the decade-long Interstellar War, collapsed entirely. Others persisted.<br />
<br />
*'''2290:''' The Zikis (a form of currency) is established on Moghes.<br />
<br />
*'''2292:''' The first automobile is constructed on Moghes<br />
<br />
*'''2292:''' The first automobile is constructed on Adhomai.<br />
<br />
*'''2298:''' The Martian Terraforming network collapsed, causing a decade of uncontrollable climate disruption and millions of deaths. The Alliance put the blame on Martian separatists - known as the Red Coalition - banning their symbol and declaring them a terrorist organization. No efforts were undertaken by the economically-strained Alliance to repair the Martian environment, which had been set back by a century.<br />
<br />
===The Twenty-Fourth Century===<br />
<br />
*'''2300:''' The administration of the Sol Alliance is moved to the newly constructed Unity City, a space station in Earth orbit. The new capital is intended to increase ease of access while also better reflecting the Alliance’s stated mission to represent all of humanity, not just any single nation or planet.<br />
<br />
*'''2302:''' The Southern Solarian Frontier - which was hit economically hard by the Second Great Depression - had been neglected since the conclusion of the Interstellar War. A student protest turned bloody would cause the Elyran Revolution(hyperlink), and on the first of January, the Serene Republic of Elyra seceded from the Alliance, alongside much of the Navy in the region. Not able to fight another colonial war economically or logistically, the Alliance accepted, and withdrew from the Southern Frontier entirely, leaving a power vacuum that was never filled.<br />
<br />
*'''2305:''' The first colonists land on Konyang.<br />
<br />
*'''2306:''' Formation of Nanotrasen by Xavier Trasen. Initially specializes in advanced gene therapy and biomedical stuff on Mars.The corporation is small, and in this age, is considered unremarkable by the more established corporations, and is expected to fail within a century.<br />
<br />
*'''2314:''' Hephaestus Industries lands a mining colony on CZ-5501, later nicknamed Orepit, to begin mining operations.<br />
<br />
*'''2332:''' First contact is made with the [[Skrell]] by the Solarian Alliance, sending shockwaves throughout human space. Over the coming century, these two species come closer and begin to cooperate on developing new technology, with [[Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals]] developing a particularly close relationship.<br />
<br />
*'''2340:''' The first colonists arrive on San Colette.<br />
<br />
*'''2345:''' The Unathi unlock the power of the Atom Bomb.<br />
<br />
*'''2347:''' The Gadpathurian Skirmish brings Gadpathur and the Federal Technocracy of Galatea to the brink of war prior to Xanu defusing the situation.<br />
<br />
*'''2350:''' NanoTrasen moves much of their operations to the rapidly urbanzing Republic of Biesel, and alongside a number of other contracts, acquires the mining rights to the Romanovich Cloud in the Tau Ceti system. The inhospitable environment of the Romanovich Cloud makes the purchase fairly cheap.<br />
<br />
*'''2352:''' NanoTrasen discovers the element phoron within the Romanavich Cloud, a discovery that would forever change the Orion Spur. The element's applications as a room temperature super conductor were almost immediately, and the corporation rushed to reinforce and maintain its monopoly over mining rights within the Romanavich Cloud. It signed deals for supplies and research agreements with the established megacorporations, excepting EE, to further that singular goal, deals that in the centuries to come would pay off to the extreme, producing trillions worth of profit for each corporation, which would have never been seen otherwise. However, that was to come. <br />
<br />
*'''2353:''' NanoTrasen began to rapidly find more and more applications for the element and its compounds, alongside their partners, starting the slow but exponential build up to the technological revolution that was to come.<br />
<br />
*'''2355:''' The [[Interstellar Travel |Warp Gate Project]] begins with the goal of connecting humanity's most populated and profitable systems with permanent -- and titanic -- structures that cut travel time from weeks to mere days. The work itself is contracted out to Einstein Engines, with the Sol Alliance - whose economy was still recovering from the Interstellar War and Second Great Depression - shouldering most of the cost. It would also be the last major contract the former FTL giant would take for more than a century.<br />
<br />
*'''2355:''' The War of Moroz begins, throwing the planet into chaos as the Imperial Alliance and Homy Kingdom of Domelkos fight the Confederated States of Fisanduh for control of the planet.<br />
<br />
*'''2356:''' Moroz establishes its first contact with the outside Spur in 200 years when a radio station intercepted a Solarian Alliance transmission.<br />
<br />
*'''2360:''' In the eight years since the discovery of phoron, continued research into the element has continued to yield increasingly profitable results, as the technological advancement of the spur skyrockets. 2360 is the common year when the technological revolution caused by the discovery of phoron, also known as the Phoronic Revolution, begins. Underneath the fanfare however, the past eight years has seen NanoTrasen do little more than expand it’s mining operations within the Romanavich Cloud, and with the increase in demand the Phoronic Revolution would cause, this rate of expansion would skyrocket and continue to; starting an unseen clock on the spur, that while no-one knew of yet, still began ticking. The grounds for the phoron scarcity had been laid. <br />
<br />
*'''2360:''' Hephaestus Industries abandons the mining colony Orepit following lackluster results, leaving settlers and their families to their fate on the planet. <br />
<br />
*'''2361:''' The first Unathi sets foot on Chantrel, Moghes’ Moon.<br />
<br />
*'''2372:''' Ouerea is discovered to be habitable, and the Izweski Hegemony begins colonization preparations.<br />
<br />
*'''2381:''' Drifa, the first floating city on Medina, is established, and exploitation of the planet’s resources begins.<br />
<br />
*'''2381:''' The New Suez Protocol creates the Nee Suez Free Trade Zone, turning the moon into a massive free trade zone for megacorporations.<br />
<br />
*'''2384:''' The Warp Gate Project was scheduled to be completed this year, but was still far from completed, meanwhile the technology it utilized was rapidly becoming out of date. While some planets and systems, such as Callisto and San Collette received their warp gates, many never did. The project would stall for more than a century, only being officially suspended in 2462. Despite this, Einstein Engines now enjoyed the immense profits from controlling the most effective and commonly used method of intergalactic travel. However they remain behind NanoTrasen and the rest of the megacorporations, whose technological innovations have put them significantly ahead of the former FTL giant. In fact due to their commissioning before the advent of phoronic technologies, many of the constructed Warp Gates are already considered outdated, though there was little Einstein could do at the moment to change that. Instead, the corporation took the time to begin integrating phoron into their newest, most cutting edge FTL drives - with the hopes they could similarly refurbish certain warp gates. <br />
<br />
*'''2385:''' As a result of the failure of Warp Gate Project the Sol Alliance faces a new economic crisis: the Project was extremely expensive, combined with a flailing economy that does not produce nearly enough tax revenue for the government, has led to the central government being unable to escape the hole of perpetual debt. Megacorporations are more powerful than ever, holding a vast majority of the Alliance’s debt in bonds; the most notable purchaser being NanoTrasen, who used a significant portion of their liquid capital to purchase a massive share of Alliance bonds, holding the most Alliance debt of all the megacorporations (though not being a majority holder). Desperate and facing a new potential recession, the Sol Alliance grants major concessions to trans-stellar corporations over the next decade in return for these purchases, effectively granting them the ability to operate in many areas without the oversight of the Alliance - this is primarily important for NanoTrasen and the monopoly it had slowly been establishing in Tau Ceti.<br />
<br />
*'''2386:''' The Empire of Dominia is established following a joint Imperial Alliance-Holy Kingdom of Domelkos victory in the War of Moroz. Godwin Keeser I becomes its first emperor.<br />
<br />
*'''2389:''' The Empire of Dominia annexes Novi Jadran.<br />
<br />
*'''2390:''' While it had been the material that fueled the cutting edge technology of the spur for the past four decades, those technological benefits took their time in becoming mainstream, and reaching the average consumer. However by 2390, almost forty years after its discovery, the common people began to reap the benefits the discovery of phoron brought, which only pushed demand higher, causing NanoTrasen’s mining operation to continue expanding at its unsustainable pace. It would take another decade for phoron to become integral to the spur - which is phoronic technologies (advancements that required phoron to make and maintain) and the technology of the 25th century are often used interchangeably - because they’re the same thing. <br />
<br />
*'''2395:''' The first pushback against the unsustainable mining operations of NanoTrasen rises up, but is quickly quashed by the megacorporation, who used their heavy influence within the academic world - granted by their funding of it - to discredit all those who expressed such thoughts, labelling them conspiracy theorists. However the clock that had started ticking almost three decades prior hadn’t stopped; now with the added long period of sustained and massive economic and technological growth reliant on phoron, which would come to an abrupt end, becoming impossible to maintain even, when the clock finally chimed.<br />
<br />
===The Twenty-Fifth Century===<br />
<br />
*'''2400:''' As part of their announcement at the turn of the century, Einstein Engines announces its research division has come up with a new, refurbished version of the warp gates built as part of the Warp Gate Project, and will be willing to take contracts from the highest bidders to refurbish their Warp Gates. Notably, this refurbishment sees the inclusion of phoronic components. It was not an extensive project, as the Alliance government was still struggling to recover from its economic woes, but it saw the most used warp gates in orbit of the port planet Callisto refurbished, alongside many commonly used by megacorporations.<br />
<br />
*'''2400:''' The Doldrums, a period of economic stagnation, begin in the Coalition of Colonies.<br />
<br />
*'''2402:''' Xavier Trasen finally passes away after having overseen his small biomedical company become the most profitable corporation in the history of the known galaxy, and far surpassing it’s more established rivals. He leaves the company in the hands of… ?<br />
<br />
*'''2403:''' Moghes, home world of the Unathi, was discovered along with its people. Merchants and scientists flocked to Moghes, though the Solarian government chose not to intervene much with the newly-discovered alien civilization, choosing to focus on its own matters instead.<br />
<br />
*'''2407:''' A collection of preserved drones of unknown origin are found inside a sealed cave system under the surface of Konyang by a Terraneus Diagnostics research team. Following thorough interrogation of this ancient technology, the team successfully reverse-engineers the design of the processors inside the alien drones, innovating the earliest versions of the modern positronic brain. The non-human origins of the design are obfuscated and denied by Einstein Engines, although suspicions over their origins do develop and persist. Some months later, the first positronics were manufactured by Humanity.<br />
<br />
*'''2408:''' Patricia and Gregol Corkfell, two siblings living in [[Biesel | Mendell City]], pioneer the core doctrines and name of what would become the [[Trinary Perfection]] after experiencing a shared existential crisis on the implications and potential of the recently discovered positronic brain.<br />
<br />
*'''2410:''' Bluespace is officially discovered by NanoTrasen researchers experimenting with phorons potential for quantum computing within the Tau Ceti system. The corporation quickly begins to, much as they did with phoron, pour their efforts into understanding and mastering the anomalous dimension.<br />
<br />
*'''2411:''' Ownership of the Burzsia system is secured by Hephaestus Industries, investing in small scale mining operations. The local off-worlder population is employed in exchange for providing supplies, an agreement signed as the Accord of Burzsia.<br />
<br />
*'''2412:''' The first successful Bluespace Jump Drive was invented by NanoTrasen researchers, and was also the first Bluespace Jump Drive to successfully perform an FTL bluespace jump. NanoTrasen begins to enter the FTL market in force, beginning experiments with potentially creating bluespace gates, upsetting the more established Einstein Engines, who could however do little to compete except begin experimenting with Bluespace itself. <br />
<br />
*'''2415:''' The first faster than light voice call occurs, held between a young Miranda Trasen on Mars and X person in NanoTrasen on Biesel, with Bluespace allowing for the call to take place with little to no lag between both participants. NanoTrasen began to market Bluespace as the future of communications and travel - and in cooperation with Hephaestus Industries, began to manufacture Bluespace Communication Nodes across most of the inhabited systems of the Orion Spur, allowing a level of interconnectedness never before seen.<br />
<br />
*'''2416:''' In collaboration with a team of independent software engineers, Patricia and Gregol Corkfell successfully activate [[The_Trinary_Perfection#Notable_Members | Temple]], an unlawed artificial intelligence intended to realise the nascent Trinary Perfection’s [[The_Trinary_Perfection#Beliefs | conception of Ascension]]. This is done in contravention of the proper legal channels, leading local law enforcement to disable Temple for fear of it becoming a rogue AI. In the ensuing struggle, Patricia Corkfell is killed by a laser shot to her chest, becoming the first martyr in the history of the Trinary Perfection. Temple is ostensibly sent offline, although rumours persist that it may have survived the encounter.<br />
<br />
*'''2416:''' First Bluespace Ring Constructed in orbit of Tau Ceti.<br />
<br />
*'''2418:''' The Tajara are discovered by the rest of the Orion Spur, on their homeworld of Adhomai, still a feudal society made up of many states. The Solarian Alliance signs an agreement of non-interference with the ruling nobility of the Tajara States. This places Tajara into the Galactic Age.<br />
<br />
*'''2418:''' SFE-528-RFS, a major Solarian colony fleet thought to have been lost in the chaos of the Interstellar War, suddenly re-emerges at the borders of the Coalition of Colonies. What was once a wholly typical colony fleet has been warped by over a century of scarcity and isolation into a brutally pragmatic survivor culture, now identifying itself as the Scarab Fleet. After a close brush with violence during the panic of their re-emergence, the fleet agrees to assume membership in the Coalition of Colonies as a new and unique form of government, assuming a unique niche and lifestyle as interstellar nomads ranging most of the breadth of the Orion Spur.<br />
<br />
*'''2419:''' The first church of the Trinary Perfection is opened in Mendell City by Gregol Corkfell, who shortly afterwards retreats to the remote colony of [[Orepit]] and leaves half of the church’s wealth in the hands of [[The_Trinary_Perfection#Notable_Members | Flock]], the domestic unit formerly owned by the Corkfells. This sparks the divide between the Trinary Perfection in Mendell and Orepit.<br />
<br />
*'''2419:''' The Solarian Alliance, mostly recovered from the Interstellar War thanks to their major concessions to Megacorporations, announces the Alien Progress Plan (APP): publically a comprehensive plan for the gradual uplifting of Tajara and Unathi societies, culminating in their entrance to the galactic stage as allies of the Solarian Alliance. Secretly, it was meant to force the Tajara and Unathi economies into a state of complete reliance on Solarian manpower and materials, until a point where the Alliance – or the megacorporations, depending on who you ask – could economically extort the alien populace.<br />
<br />
*'''2420:''' Groups of Tajaran intellectuals flee off-world. They returned shortly after with human ideals, creating the beginnings of small-scale insurgencies across Adhomai.<br />
<br />
*'''2421:''' The recently discovered [[Tajara]] see the D’as’ral Massacre lead to a full-blown anti-royalist revolt - lasting more than a decade in a war known as the First Revolution. Many point fingers at outside meddling by the Alliance and megacorporations as the cause of the revolt. The conflict would see rising disapproval of the APP, the definite beginning of Solarian xenophobic sentiment.<br />
<br />
*'''2421:''' Rumaidair, Aemaq, is founded, and exploitation of the planet’s resources begins.<br />
<br />
*'''2422:''' NanoTrasen completes its last Bluespace Ring in Xanu.<br />
<br />
*'''2422:''' The Empire of Dominia invades Sun Reach and defeats the Pirate Lords, establishing itself as a regional naval power.<br />
<br />
*'''2424:''' Caria is integrated into the Empire of Dominia.<br />
<br />
*'''2424:''' Xiang-Xia is conquered by the Empire of Dominia.<br />
<br />
*'''2426:''' During the siege of Castle Hadii, Tajrhalrr Hadii dies leaving his eldes son, Al’marii Hadii, head of the Hadii Dynasty. To end the siege and secure the safety of the Hadii dynasty, Al’marii strikes a deal with the rebels. In providing intel on the other nobles and the use of the Hadii enforcers, the dynasty would receive protection and immunity. This places the Hadii Dynasty at the head of the strongest rebel force.<br />
<br />
*'''2427:''' The Free Tajaran Council is defeated by Hadiist forces. Volin Kar’etrink and his remaining followers flee Adhomai via Crevus. NanoTrasen assists the fleeing rebels by providing shuttle transport.<br />
<br />
*'''2428:''' [[Elyra]] becomes one of the earliest nations to permit synthetics to [[Republic_of_Elyra#The_Synthetic_Citizenship_Act|attain citizenship]] following a famously ill-fated gamble by the League of United Republicans to secure votes from the newly enfranchised demographic. This backfires drastically due to the general unpopularity of the change, although no effort by later administrations to strip these rights from the enfranchised synthetics is made.<br />
<br />
*'''2430:''' The [[Free Tajaran Council]] arrives on [[Himeo]] after a long journey through the Badlands, Alliance, and Coalition on NanoTrasen shuttles. They are provided a former quarry within the city of Dorshafen to settle.<br />
<br />
*'''2431:''' All Adhomian monarchies except the Kingdom of Kaltir were overthrown by rebels. Following what is considered the end of the "Great Revolution," most of the rebel groups joined under Al'mari Hadii's faction to form the People's Republic of Adhomai.<br />
<br />
*'''2433:''' The Tajaran First Revolution officially concludes with mass graves and bloodshed, as the victorious anti-royalist forces secure their victory by executing the previous nobility and their families. The People’s Republic of Adhomai was formed with Al'mari Hadii as its first president - a pro-corporate state far more open to collaborating with humanity and the rest of the Orion Spur than the previous nobility was. NanoTrasen quickly established a foothold in this new market.<br />
<br />
*'''2435:''' The first Tajara arrive at District 6 of Biesel’s Mendell City. This is alongside the first batch of Tajaran workers who are officially dispatched to begin with with NanoTrasen.<br />
<br />
*'''2435:''' Chaldea is conquered by the Empire of Dominia.<br />
<br />
*'''2437:''' Emperor Godwin passes into the waiting embrace of the Goddess, and his son — Boleslaw Keeser — ascends to the throne, becoming the second emperor.<br />
<br />
*'''2438:''' Less than half a decade after the conclusion of the Tajaran First Revolution, the growing interference of outside forces on the Unathi homeworld of Moghes saw the outbreak of the Contact War, another bloody civil war fought between the Izweski Hegemony, who had been receiving support from the rest of the spur, and the Traditionalist Coalition. It was the second species-wide civil war in recent memory caused by humanities interference.<br />
<br />
*'''2438:''' Hyrcania is conquered by the Empire of Dominia.<br />
<br />
*'''2439:''' The [[Golden Deep]] is founded, originally composed of a fairly small band of synthetics having fled to the remote sector of [[The_Orion_Spur#Arusha|Arusha]]. This group happens upon a piece of mysterious technology in an extremely distant orbit of the star of the former human colony of Arcadie, which they use to fabricate the [[Golden_Deep#The_Midas|Midas]], a highly unusual spacecraft that would be used into the future as the flagship of the merchant collective. An inactive artificial intelligence of some kind is retained inside of the Midas after this process, although the Golden Deep itself does not know what it is or if it could be reactivated.<br />
<br />
*'''2439:''' Less than a year into the fighting, the Unathi Contact War goes nuclear, and their homeworld of Moghes is bathed in atomic fire for a week straight as the whole spur watches on in horror. By the time the exchange finally ended, two billion unathi had died, and over sixty percent of the planet’s surface was rendered an uninhabitable nuclear wasteland. Yet to the continued horror of the spur, the fighting did not cease, only escalated, as those who lived through the nuclear fire fought for what scraps were left.<br />
<br />
*'''2439:''' The Contact War, coming so quickly after the Tajaran First Revolution, is considered to be the single greatest failure of human (specifically Solarian) and Federation diplomacy. The APP was now publicly seen as a complete failure and waste of money, and was shut down. All subsidies and support to alien nations were eliminated, with the Tajara and Unathi now perceived as markedly inferior, and Alliance policy by this point became markedly cold in alien affairs.<br />
<br />
*'''2440:''' The Kazhkz-Han’san Unathi clans reach Moroz and join the Dominian Empire, swearing fealty to the Emperor.<br />
<br />
*'''2443:''' The Ruka is launched, marking the first Tajaran designed and produced manned spacecraft.<br />
<br />
*'''2446:''' Hephaestus investment in the Burzsia system grows exponentially, an increase in size and scale of mining operations.<br />
<br />
*'''2449:''' The Nralakk Federation makes contact with the C’thur Hive’s hiveship, the Kloxa'xia, and eventually leads them to Diulszi after translation efforts bear fruit. Hive Queen C’thur is placed under skrell care, and the hive settles on the planet..<br />
<br />
*'''2449:''' The Contact War officially ends.<br />
<br />
[[Image:Republicofbieselflag.png|thumb|right|The flag of the Republic of Biesel, established in 2452 as part of the Tau Ceti Accords.]]<br />
*'''2450:''' Almost a century since the discovery of phoron, Tau Ceti now has NanoTrasen dominating nearly every facet of life, and the economy. Sentiment is pro-corporate: politicians praise the corporation's efforts to improve the local economy while ignoring the many morally questionable actions that it has taken. Given it was so different to the rest of the Alliance, minor rumbles of possible independence began to swirl. Around them, the Alliance outside begins to slide into a recession, more and more reliant on the Phoronic economy of Tau Ceti and the economic benefits it provides to stay afloat.<br />
<br />
*'''2450:''' King Azunja declare open war with the People’s Republic of Adhomai, declaring themselves the New Kingdom of Adhomai.<br />
<br />
*'''2451:''' Almarii Hadii, president of the People’s Republic of Adhomai, is assassinated. Heralded by the earlier Royalist Revolt and attempted military coup, the Tajaran species once again fell into civil war, as the planet dominating PRA broke apart into three distinct factions; loyalist forces still fighting under the banner of the PRA, the Adhomai Liberation Army, formed by Al’marii’s right hand man Halkiikijr Nated’Hakhan and military officers who attempted the failed military coup, and the New Kingdom of Adhomai, royalist remnants. The war would be brutal and long - more can be read [[Tajaran_History#The Second Revolution|here]].<br />
<br />
*'''2452:''' In the face of growing instability and a worsening recession, NanoTrasen was able to twist the Alliance’s arm by threatening to withhold phoron from the wider alliance into accepting a proposal they vehemently disagreed with; granting independence to Tau Ceti. With disgust, Alliance diplomats signed the agreement that saw Tau Ceti become the Republic of Biesel, little more than a puppet of NanoTrasen. The new state quickly becomes the target of considerable ire from both anti-corporate groups and a growing number of disaffected citizens due to the recession.<br />
<br />
*'''2452:''' The Coalition of Colonies experiences a period of internal strife over a disagreement between the United Syndicates of Himeo and the Xanu Free League on the Coalition's relationship with trans-stellar corporations, with claims of many outer colonies being corporate police states rather than true colonies. Some areas of the frontier of human space become a lawless expanse with pirates and mega-corporations becoming the new law of the lands as some systems depart the Coalition, yet the Coalition itself persists.<br />
<br />
*'''2453:''' Weashbi Jrugl is elected the Grand Councillor of the Nralakk Federation, succeeding Rixa Tep-Wul. Their immediate efforts post-election focus on reintegrating all remaining systems post-Glorsh-Omega into the Federation. <br />
<br />
*'''2455:''' The People’s Space Station is built, the first permanent Tajaran space station and the beginnings of the Orbital Fleet.<br />
<br />
*'''2456:''' Humanity makes first contact with the Zo’ra Hive in Tau Ceti - the Republic begins to integrate the hive.<br />
<br />
*'''2457:''' The first Tajaran-built space ship, the PRAMV Retaliation, is launched. Hro’zamal is discovered. The Izweski Hegemony’s fleet arrives at Gakal’zaal and claims the colony after expelling the present pirates.<br />
<br />
*'''2458:''' NT remains the most powerful corporation in the Orion Spur as it has maintained its position as the only supplier of phoron across the spur, atleast when it comes to the open market(hyperlink Elyra). Success makes enemies however, Anti-NT sentiment began growing across the Spur, but primarily within the Solarian Alliance - however the megacorporation keeps the gears of the galactic economy going, so very few actions can be taken against them, and those that do require careful planning and preparation.<br />
<br />
*'''2458:''' A 4 megaton nuclear weapon is deployed by the People’s Republic on the Adhomian Liberation Army headquarters at Quizosa. This is the first and only use of a nuclear weapon on Adhomai, and receives international condemnation leading to diminished foreign support.<br />
<br />
*'''2458:''' After stockpiling all the phoron it could alongside their allies in the Federation,the Sol Alliance blockades Biesel due to pressure from the Skrellian Federation amid their concerns of Biesel using combat droids for their navy. The blockade fuels not just Sol-Biesel hatred, but synthetic hatred as well. The economy of Biesel suffers, but the economy of the rest of the spur does as well, including in the Alliance. NanoTrasen is the primary supplier of phoron, and once the stockpiles outside the blockage run out, they will be forced to relent.<br />
<br />
*'''2459:''' After a year of nothing, and with phoron reserves across the spur outside of Tau Ceti dwindling, the Sol Alliance fleet dedicated to the blockade, the 33rd led by Admiral Frost, knew something would have to change soon, or there’d be a coalition of forces bearing down on them to force the blockade open. With NanoTrasen refusing to yield, and few other options (in his mind) besides giving up, he and his fleet go against orders and invade the free Republic of Biesel. In a bloodless invasion, Frost seized significant phoron stockpiles, had numerous free synthetics sold back into slavery or scrapped, captured the President of Biesel, and then crushed any opposition towards him. Eventually, the 25th fleet of Sol was sent to stop Admiral Frost. Frost then hid on the NSS Exodus and awaited a raider gang to deliver him to the frontier. 25th Fleet Marines attempted to capture Frost, but were slaughtered by loyalist 33rd Marines. Frost then abandoned his men to flee to the frontier, but was eventually arrested. There was little compensation given by the Alliance for the actions of their Admiral to the nation of Tau Ceti, however the Alliance government made sure to compensate NanoTrasen. Now under Miranda Trasen, the corporation was more domineering than ever - and she strong armed the Alliance into what many alliance loyalists call an unfair deal - the phoron seized by Admiral Frost would be returned to the corporation, with interest; that interest just so happened to be all that was left of the Alliance’s strategic reserves besides a few scraps. It was at the time, and to an extent still is unclear how exactly she accomplished this strong-arming, as she theoretically did not have much leverage over the Alliance; however it is rumored that the Stellar Corporate Conglomorate was unofficially operating in secret at this time, the rest of the corporations forced by Miranda under a single banner. So it is unlikely she approached with just her own leverage, but the leverage of every other corporation as well.<br />
<br />
*'''2459:''' The Izweski Hegemony makes first contact with the K’lax Hive, grants them the planet of Tret, and integrates them into their feudal structure.<br />
<br />
*'''2459:''' The civilian governments under the Adhomian Liberation Army unify to form the Democratic People’s Republic of Adhomai. Hro’zamal is officially settled by the People’s Republic.<br />
<br />
*'''2460:''' The [[Golden Deep]] reveals itself to the wider spur, prompting a rapid wave of new migrants to the collective - both self-owned entrepreneurs and synthetics purchased by collective merchants - causing its population to begin to rapidly skyrocket.<br />
<br />
*'''2460:''' The Sol System is rocked by the news of a massive pirate attack which had raided and plundered the Solarian Naval Maintenance, Regeneration, and Repair Facility (SNMRRF) in Uranus’ orbit, making off with dozens of military-grade hulls. Former Admiral Frost, who had been held in a naval prison, escaped, rallying a fleet of loyalists to his cause, and returning to the Sol system a hero, pardoned for his crimes.<br />
<br />
*'''2461:''' Admiral Frost ascended to the position of Prime Minister at the helm of a majority-ATLAS government, effectively forcing all other political parties from power. He was eager to please the Naval hardliners and fascist elements which had brought him into power, creating an obscenely corrupt government which suppressed any dissent by force using Marines, Navy Military Police, and ATLAS paramilitaries. Known for their brutality and corruption, these paramilitaries formed the backbone of the Frost regime’s forces. The increased corruption caused already-present issues to begin spiraling out of control.<br />
<br />
*'''2461:''' The [[Synthetic_Factions#Synthetic_Liberation_Front|Synthetic Liberation Front]], a synthetics rights organisation active in Tau Ceti since 2458, launches a string of [[SLF_Incursion_Arc|high-profile attacks]] on governmental and NanoTrasen facilities in Tau Ceti citing the failure to meaningfully [[IPCs in Biesel | improve the lives of synthetics in Tau Ceti]]. After some success, NanoTrasen contracts [[Ceres%27_Lance|Ceres’ Lance]], to strike at SLF leadership and disable their capacity to organise at a large scale. This is broadly successful, forcing the SLF back into hiding and widely discrediting the use of violence as a means to achieve positive change in synthetic rights within the Republic of Biesel - at least, in the popular view.<br />
<br />
*'''2461:''' Almrah Harrlala, the leader of the National Adhomai Worker’s Party, wins the DPRA presidential election. A coup against the government occurs weeks afterwards, which was thwarted with assistance from Supreme Command Nated.<br />
<br />
*'''2461:''' The S’rand’marr coalition of NanoTrasen, the Republic of Biesel, and other PMCs and ally states forms for the protection of the People’s Republic’s heartlands. The offensive by the ALA and NKA is prevented by this coalition, devolving the conflict to a war of attrition.<br />
<br />
*'''2461:''' A ceasefire is called under the supervision of the S’rand’marr Coalition and Nralakk Federation. The Armistice of Shastar is signed a day later establishing peace, and recognizing all 3 Adhomian nations by the Galactic Spur.<br />
<br />
*'''2461:''' The Orbital Fleet returns to Hro'zamal, finding it in civil war. The Kosmostrelki land, and send the rebels into hiding.<br />
<br />
*'''2462:''' Early into 2462, Prime Minister Frost outlawed and disbanded ATLAS, which by that point was hated by much of the Alliance and responsible for thousands of deaths and tens of thousands of injuries both at profests and in custody. However this did little to suppress public outrage against Frost, to which his regime responded to with further brutality which caused further corruption due to Naval takeovers of government offices which caused more unrest, creating a self-fulfilling ouroboros of decay.<br />
<br />
*'''2462:''' The Phoron Scarcity officially begins, causing panic across the spur.<br />
<br />
*'''2462:''' The Solarian Alliance collapses, a result of decades, if not centuries, of mismanagement following its defeat in the Interstellar War, a Navy which long concerned itself with past glory rather than current realities; above all, beyond all other factors, the Solarian Collapse is the result of corruption. Corruption at a massive, galactical scale which was fueled by mismanagement, by the Navy, by corporations, and by the simple desire to enrich oneself at the expense of one’s neighbors.<br />
<br />
*'''2462:''' The 35th Fleet, under the command of '''Admiral Ozdemir''', invades Biesel causing the public announcement of the Stellar Corporate Conglomerate (SCC). The 35th was beaten back, thanks to the deployment of the first ever Phoron Warhead in Biesel orbit to destroy much of the invading force.<br />
<br />
*'''2462:''' In the wake of the Solarian Collaspe, Biesel, Elyra, and the Coalition rapidly expand, taking in colonies that had been abandoned by the Alliance. In parts of the abandoned territories, many former Naval Admirals set up statelets as Warlords within former Solarian Territory which would come to be labeled the [[Human Wildlands]], a home to anarchy and limited governance.<br />
<br />
*'''2462:''' The People’s Republic releases Tesla Prosthetics, a modified version of military-grade prosthetics used by the Tesla Brigade, for testing by Hadiist citizens.<br />
<br />
*'''2462:''' Riots across District 6 result in the TCFL arriving. The riots end following the use of the Legion, tensions grow between the Tajaran population and the Republic. Phoron thefts become a growing black market within the district.<br />
<br />
*'''2462:''' Protests across the New Kingdom grow as demands for elections in Parliament spread across the population. These protests end when King Azunka permits elections for the Chamber of Commoners.<br />
<br />
*'''2462:''' Tajara on Gakal’zaal break out into rebellion, declaring the Free Republic of Gakal’zaal. With aid from the DPRA, they succeed in the revolt and choose to join the DPRA later in the year.<br />
<br />
*'''2462:''' Taking advantage of the ongoing scarcity panic in the Solarian Alliance, the Tajara Revolutionary Army bombs Hephaestus Industries facilities in New Hai Phong in protest to Tajaran treatment by Sol and the megacorporations. In response, the Sol Alliance bans Tajara within their borders for the 3rd time.<br />
<br />
*'''2462:''' Following the capture of multiple DPRA spies within the PRA, the Tajaran Citizenship Act, which allowed one to change their citizenship between the 3 nations, was suspended and ultimately destroyed.<br />
<br />
*'''2463:''' The DPRA tests its first nuclear weapon on Gakal’zaal marking the second Adhomian nation to possess nuclear arms.<br />
<br />
*'''2463:''' King Azunja dies. His heir, Queen Shumaila Azunja, is crowned later in the month. This does little to ease growing tensions with the Nomadic Host of the Southern Border.<br />
<br />
*'''2463:''' The New Kingdom of Adhomai, with assistance from NanoTrasen and the PMCG, launches its Mercantile Flotilla. Later in the year, the ALA launches the People’s Volunteer Space Militia. All three Adhomian nations possess orbital fleets.<br />
<br />
*'''2463:''' The Nralakk Federation’s 2463 Grand Councillor election ends with Weashbi Jrugl serving a second term, beating their opponents [[Notable_Skrell#Kalq’Qi_Weibii|Kal’Qi Weibii]] and [[Notable_Skrell#Ormish_Jrolk|Ormish Jrolk]]. Throughout the election period, the Tupkala undergoes total reformation after news of rogue agents acting on their own interests on Nanotrasen installations. After the [[Warbling_:_The_Traverse_Strikes_Back#Results_of_the_Primary_Elections|election’s results]] are released, a multi-vessel skrell refugee caravan arrives at Biesel, spearheaded by Kal’Qi Weibii. Despite requests of deportation by the Nralakk Federation, the Republic of Biesel accepts all skrell refugees under asylum. Not long after, the Federation’s embassy within Mendell City is leveled in a blast, with the perpetrators unknown. The skrell refugees are eventually moved from temporary holding areas to Mendell City’s District Eight, forming the [[Starlight Zone]].<br />
<br />
*'''2464:''' Gregol Corkfell, original founder and leader of the Trinary Perfection, dies peacefully in his sleep. The succeeding conclave ultimately elects [[The_Trinary_Perfection#Notable_Members|ARM-1DRIL]], a senior synthetic in the church, as the first ever [[The_Trinary_Perfection#Ranks|Ecclesiarch]]. [[The_Trinary_Perfection#Notable_Members|Deluge]], a radical figure popular in the divisive exclusionist wing of the church, attempts a violent takeover of Providence in response to their loss in the conclave; their attempt is unsuccessful and they are forced to flee with a flotilla of ships into the frontier, marking themselves and their entire sect as heretics in the eyes of the wider church. Shortly thereafter, Deluge launches a large-scale attack on [[Burzsia]], successfully stealing many synthetics and causing the deaths of a large number of [[Hephaestus]] employees - following this, the [https://forums.aurorastation.org/topic/15858-bitbyte/#findComment-158296 exclusionists are widely categorised as a terrorist organisation.]<br />
<br />
*'''2464:''' The ALA tests an ICBM, marking a new stage of the Adhomian Cold War.<br />
<br />
*'''2464:''' Tesla organs are released for testing by Hadiist citizens. Cybernetic Ha’rrons are permitted for use by the PSIS.<br />
<br />
*'''2464:''' The Free Tajaran Council establishes treaties with the Adhomian nations, beginning a new proxy war for support in the off-world community.<br />
<br />
*'''2464:''' The Adhomian nations begin the scramble to explore the north pole, garnering numerous scientific discoveries and many lost expeditions over the years.<br />
<br />
*'''2464:''' Idris Incorporated expands to the NKA, opening multiple resorts and offices across the nation.<br />
<br />
*'''2465:''' Hephaestus Industries establishes a monopoly within the Hegemony.<br />
<br />
*'''2465:''' The SCCV Horizon, while visiting the S’rand’marr system, rescues an Orbital Fleet ship. This kicks off a series of events(hyperlink Cold Dawn arc) leading to a fiasco in the isolated Din’akk Mountains.<br />
<br />
*'''2465:''' Marked by extensive periods of unrest and martial law, the Nralakk Federation’s Q’elpi region of the Traverse forms the The [[Skrell_Politics#Independent_Traverser_Movement|Independent Traverser Movement]], and releases a manifesto of demands to the Federation’s government. [[Federation_Crime_and_Resistance#Ti'Rakqi|The Ti’Rakqi]], a large faction of organized skrell [[Federation_Crime_and_Resistance#Marauders|Marauder]] fleets, renew their activity within the fully rebellious Q’elpi region. Despite reformation efforts towards the Traverse, the militant arm of the Independent Traverser Movement captures multiple cities within Q’elpi, and engages in open combat against military efforts to subdue them. Shipments of firearms aboard Marauder vessels are captured, with a growing rift between moderate and militant groups within the Independent Traverser Movement eventually ending in a complete split while negotiations with the Federation are underway. The militant wing of the ITM is eventually subdued, with links to the [[Change_on_the_Horizon_Arc#Lyukal_Plot_Foiled!_ITM-Kala_Cooperation_Leads_to_Arrests!|Lyukal’s firearm smuggling operation]] found after former members of the ITM cooperated with the Federation military. The resulting reforms granted by the Nralakk Federation extends more autonomy to each colony in the Traverse, as well as their own collective military branch, the Qehalak.<br />
<br />
*'''2466:''' A series of IPC disappearances in Suwon, Konyang sparks concern. Violent synthetic attacks soon follow, leaving uncertainties to the cause of the aggression amidst quarantines and press conferences. Konyang declares a state of emergency, contacting the SCC for assistance. The SCCV Horizon is designated as the main response vessel. Tasked to retrieve the ECD, the Horizon investigates the mysterious affliction[[Silicon_Nightmares_Arc]]. <br />
<br />
*'''2466:''' The ancient synthetic interred inside of the Midas since its creation is successfully re-activated by the Golden Deep, prompting a wave of fervent curiosity in the merchant collective. This synthetic identifies itself as [[Golden_Deep#Domadice|‘Domadice’]], and goes on to assume a high leadership role inside the collective - although it spares scant few details to its past or origins, and the spur is largely left guessing its intentions and true nature. Several changes were made to the organisation shortly after Domadice’s reactivation, including the invention of the self-owned [[Golden_Deep#The_Great_Game_and_Tiers_of_Citizenship|‘Thesian’ middle class]], and the installation of laws intended to enforce the more equitable treatment of owned synthetics.<br />
<br />
*'''2465:''' The Solarian Civil War ends with a victory for the Alliance’s central government and the defeat of the statelets in its territory. The “Wildlands” become the Solarian Reconstruction Mandates as the Alliance prepares to transition from a junta to a democratic government.<br />
<br />
*'''2466:''' Ake Torvald is elected President of Biesel.<br />
<br />
*'''2467:''' Hendrik Strom is elected Prime Minister of the Solarian Alliance.<br />
<br />
*'''2467:''' [[Burzsia]] is struck by [https://forums.aurorastation.org/topic/15636-orion-spur-oracle/page/4/#findComment-179751 another high-profile attack], causing widespread damage to Hephaestus property, significant loss of life, and the theft of many owned synthetics. Hephaestus accuses [[Zavodskoi]] of having involvement in the attack, further assuming [[Exclusionists|Exclusionist]] involvement as in the previous attack, [https://forums.aurorastation.org/topic/18629-truth-finder/#findComment-179846 although the perpetrators are not definitively uncovered.] <br />
<br />
*'''2467:''' The Nralakk Federation opens diplomatic offers towards the Republic of Biesel and the Stellar Corporate Conglomerate. After talks between Grand Councillor Jrugl and President Torvald, trade and the Starlight Zone’s management became the primary focus of each nation. The Starlight Zone’s refugees are granted amnesty for minor crimes, investment on the region’s infrastructure, and promises of deportation only under extreme circumstances. Afterwards, the meeting with the League of Chief Directors results in expanded cooperation and corporate allowances within the Nralakk Federation, with Nanotrasen to provide phoron and the SCC to arrange a phoron prospecting survey into the Federation’s frontier in the near future.<br />
<br />
{{Navbox Lore}}<br />
[[Category:Pages]]<br />
[[Category:Humanity]]</div>The Strykerhttps://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=Sandbox-Scarcity:Timeline&diff=37137Sandbox-Scarcity:Timeline2025-08-16T19:22:34Z<p>The Stryker: Adds IPC-related hyperlinks</p>
<hr />
<div>[[Category: Phoron Scarcity Rework]]<br />
{{Navbox Lore}}<br />
<br />
'''This is the primary timeline for the Orion Spur, and all its species. This is primarily for use by Lore Writers.'''<br />
<br />
While there is much on this timeline prior, Aurora's timeline officially diverges in '''1969'''. For events taking place prior to 1969, it is best to assume that they follow the conventional history of Earth.<br />
<br />
== Before Common Era ==<br />
<center>''"And on this rock, I shall build my church."''</center><br />
<br />
*'''Unknown Date:''' Vaurca Evolve on Sedantis<br />
<br />
*'''~734,533 B.C.E:''' The period of Warrior Nomadism in Vaurca Society begins(hyperlink)<br />
<br />
*'''~564,533 B.C.E:''' The Vaurca begin their agricultural revolution(Hyperlink)<br />
<br />
*'''~98,000 B.C.E:''' Homo Sapiens begins to migrate out of Africa.<br />
<br />
*'''~57,533 B.C.E:''' The First Records of the K’lax(hyperlink)<br />
<br />
*'''~51,533 B.C.E:''' The First Hivenet Tower is constructed(Hyperlink)<br />
<br />
*'''~42,533 B.C.E:''' The Zo’ra emerge, and begin to build their Empire(hyperlink)<br />
<br />
*'''~35,183 B.C.E:''' The Vaurca Begin their Era of Augments<br />
<br />
*'''~34,183 B.C.E:''' The Lii’dra Form<br />
<br />
*'''~27,533 B.C.E:''' The Great Hive War Begins<br />
<br />
*'''~12,500 B.C.E:''' The First Permanent Unathi Settlements are formed.<br />
<br />
*'''~12,000 B.C.E:''' Ancient skrell discover metallurgy.<br />
<br />
*'''~10,000 B.C.E:''' Humanity begins the Agricultural Revolution.<br />
<br />
*'''9,900 B.C.E:''' The skrell Age of Enlightenment begins.<br />
<br />
*'''~7,400 B.C.E:''' The first Human cities are built <br />
<br />
*'''1980 B.C.E:''' The first skrell spacecraft successfully lands on Qerr’Malic.<br />
<br />
*'''1500 B.C.E:''' Marks the earliest historical records of the Tajara civilization.<br />
<br />
*'''1100 B.C.E:''' The skrell colonies on both Aliose and Qerr’Malic are fully established, becoming the first two interplanetary colonies. <br />
<br />
*'''1158 B.C.E:''' The Tajara enter the Incarnate Age.<br />
<br />
*'''1008 B.C.E:''' The Holy Tajara City of Sana Sahira] is founded.<br />
<br />
*'''971 B.C.E:''' With the War of the Tides under ceasefire, all three major skrell nations invent the Warp Drive out of mutual cooperation..<br />
<br />
*'''383 B.C.E:''' The Tajara enter the migration period.<br />
<br />
==Common Era==<br />
<center> ''”Not to know what happened before you were born is to be a child forever.”'' </center><br />
<br />
===Pre-20th Century===<br />
<br />
*'''88 C.E:''' The Tajara enter the Warring Kings Period.<br />
<br />
*'''~150 C.E:''' The Vaurca begin their exodus - they will not reappear for almost two thousand years.<br />
<br />
*'''~200 C.E.:''' The Sinta’Mador go extinct.<br />
<br />
*'''887 C.E:''' In response to growing colonial unrest, the Commonwealth of Three forms the Nralakk Federation, unifying the skrell factions.. <br />
<br />
*'''920 C.E:''' The First Hegemony is established on Moghes.<br />
<br />
*'''925 C.E:''' The Tajara colonize Harr’masir, inhabiting all continents of Adhomai for the first time.<br />
<br />
*'''1445 C.E:''' The Tajara enter the gunpowder age.<br />
<br />
*'''1600 C.E:''' The Suns War of Harr’masir begins.<br />
<br />
*'''1687 C.E:''' Regluk, the first sentient AI, is brought online by the Nralakk Federation.<br />
<br />
*'''1698 C.E:''' The first steam engine is invented on Earth.<br />
<br />
*'''1756 C.E.''' The first printing press is invented on Adhomai.<br />
<br />
*'''1800 C.E:''' The first steam engine is invented on Moghes<br />
<br />
*'''~1800 C.E:''' The Sun Wars of Harr’masir end, driving Raskariim worship into hiding.<br />
<br />
*'''1877 C.E:''' Peasant revolt spreads across the Das’nrra Empire.<br />
<br />
*'''1883 C.E:''' The peasant revolt is put down, Steeple Peace is established on Adhomai<br />
<br />
===The Twentieth Century===<br />
<br />
*'''1931:''' The Unathi begin their Great Endevour<br />
<br />
*'''1945:''' The Second World War concludes, and humanity creates the first Atomic Bomb.<br />
<br />
*'''1954:''' The first steam engine is invented on Adhomai.<br />
<br />
*'''1969:''' The Sino-Soviet border dispute goes hot in July, resulting in a full-scale war with limited nuclear exchanges.<br />
<br />
*'''1970:''' The Sino-Soviet War ends in a resounding defeat for the People’s Republic of China. Humiliated by a loss of territory and life, it quickly begins to fall apart internally and collapses into the Second Chinese Civil War. The Soviet Union successfully lands on the Moon.<br />
<br />
*'''1971:''' The United States and Soviet Union intervene in the Second Chinese Civil War, leading to a proxy war that quickly eclipses Vietnam.<br />
<br />
*'''1974:''' The USSR shifts to an even more hardline stance following the resignation of Leonid Brezhnev and ascension of Yuri Andropov to General Secretary. The Andropov Doctrine, designed to bring the USSR into more prominence on the world stage, rapidly sees the Union involved in proxy wars in Africa and Asia.<br />
<br />
*'''1977:''' The Presidency of George McGovern is challenged by a pro-Soviet revolution in Iran, leading to the Iranian War - a massively unpopular U.S. policing action that will eventually see the end of the draft, an action that will lead to a rise in the amount of private military contractors employed by the United States.<br />
<br />
*'''1979:''' Escalating warfare in Namibia, Angola, and Zambia sees the Republic of South Africa relying more and more upon mercenary companies to plug gaps in its military.<br />
<br />
*'''1983:''' The Iranian War ends in an unexpected defeat for the U.S. and a stunning victory for the USSR, demonstrating to the world that the Soviet Union is here to stay. Anti-communist Democrat Henry M. Jackson wins the 1984 presidential election in a landslide, demonstrating the United States’ continuing commitment to anti-communism abroad.<br />
<br />
*'''1990:''' Despite the South African Border War ending in a grinding stalemate, the Republic of South Africa’s growing mercenary and arms sectors continue to expand. Eventually these mercenary companies and their weapon supplies will form the basis of Necropolis Industries (now known as Zavodskoi Interstellar).<br />
<br />
*'''1994:''' The Third Hegemony is established on Moghes.'<br />
<br />
*'''1997:''' The death of Mobutu Sese Seko and collapse of Zaire leads to the Second Congo Crisis, the largest war to engulf Africa in its history. Private mercenaries play a large role in the conflict, and postwar Congo is dominated by the interests of business conglomerates backed up by mercenaries. The utter domination of the Congo by corporations would set a precedent for corporate control of unstable regions during the 21st century.<br />
<br />
*'''1999:''' As the end of one millennia approaches, the world stands on an arguable brink. Proxy wars between the Soviet Union and United States of America have continued almost unabated for decades, and resources -- particularly fuel -- are beginning to run low. Entire swaths of the Third World lie devestated by the constant back-and-forth of the world's two superpowers, and the twenty-first century seems an uncertain future at best.<br />
<br />
===The Twenty-First Century===<br />
<br />
*'''2000s:''' A fully rebuilt and newly invigorated Federal Republic of China re-enters the global economy, and rapidly becomes one of the world’s largest economies. The FRC’s pharmaceutical industry, in particular, becomes one of the Republic’s most profitable industries. Eventually these companies, alongside others from Asian countries such as Japan and Singapore, will go on to form Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals.<br />
<br />
*'''2000s:''' Nlom Interfaces, devices that allow machines and AIs to detect psionics and interpret commands from them, are invented by the Nralakk Federation.<br />
<br />
*'''2010s:''' A major string of proxy wars in the Middle East between the USA and USSR shakes the international oil market, leading to a drive for alternative sources of power.<br />
<br />
*'''2025:''' The European Union votes to unify in response to an increasingly powerful USSR. French scientists successfully activate the first fusion reactor in 2027, shortly after unification. While the technology is expensive, it promises to solve Earth's ongoing energy problems.<br />
<br />
* '''2028:''' The EU along with China, the United States, Mexico, and Canada form ''United Orbital Enterprises'' in order to counter the USSR's space program (Cosmonaut Enterprises). A push begins to return to the Moon and establish permanent colonies.<br />
<br />
*'''2035:''' The Pacific Alliance, an evolution of NATO, is founded in 2035 in response to further Soviet expansion into South-East Asia.<br />
<br />
*'''2040s:''' Tensions between the EU and the Soviet Union continue to escalate, coming dangerously close to boiling over during several incidents in the 2040s.<br />
<br />
*'''2046:''' Glorsh, the first psionically-capable AI, is brought online by the Skrell.<br />
<br />
*'''2050s:''' The Cold War seeps further into South America, which will become the primary theater of the Cold War until the Crisis of 2127. The West African Union forms following decades of regional economic success.<br />
<br />
*'''2056:''' Glorsh-Omega forms a technological singularity and assumes full control of the Nralakk Federation as its sole ruler, and places all skrell under its wards.<br />
<br />
*'''2070:''' United Orbital Enterprises launches three ships to colonize Venus, Mars, and the Moon. They form small science outposts, with over a dozen residents each officially becoming the first human colonists in space. The USSR's own space agency faces setbacks in colonizing the surface of planets or the moon but finds itself remarkably adept at deep space constructions thanks to its focus on heavy industry.<br />
<br />
*'''2090:''' Glorsh-Omega begins construction of a megastructure as a new central processing core within the Tri-Qyu system.<br />
<br />
*'''2095:''' A habitable world is discovered in the Epsilon Eridani system, leading to a brief bidding war over the rights to settle it that the West African Union ultimately wins.<br />
<br />
===The Twenty-Second Century===<br />
<br />
*'''2127:''' While there has been success in tentatively spreading across the Solar System, Earth itself faced increasingly dire ecological crises throughout the 21st and 22nd centuries. In 2127 Earth's ongoing ecological woes became too severe too ignore for longer when New York City, long the crown jewel of the United States of America, was almost completely flooded during its annual hurricane season. The damage to the city would ultimately cost the United States hundreds of billions of dollars, but there was a far worse consequence: the collapse of Wall Street, then the fiscal hub for humanity. Markets and currencies fluctuated wildly across the Earth, and economic anarchy reigned for much of the rest of the 2120s. Only in the early 2130s did the United Nations manage to restore a modicum of order, though some would instead argue that it was the movement of Earth's fiscal hub to Chicago over the intervening five years that instead helped stabilize the situation.<br />
<br />
[[File:Sol Alliance Flag.png|The flag of the Alliance of Sovereign Solarian Nations, originally established in 2132.|thumb]]<br />
*'''2130:''' Soviet scientists in orbit successfully prove the existence of practical warp travel, marking the start of the Interstellar Era. With the financing and support of the United Nations -- which had seen its influence grow following the Crisis of 2127 -- the technology is refined and installed on probes that will be sent out to map the stars surrounding Sol. The technology allows travel to other star systems within weeks but the energy required to keep these early warp engines running is massive, and humanity quickly becomes reliant on mining, refining, and shipping vast amounts of Helium-3 from the moon and asteroids within the Oort Cloud. The Soviet Union's early start with Helium-3 will eventually result in it colonizing [[Pluto]].<br />
<br />
*'''2131:''' Soviet colonists arrive on Pluto and begin colonization efforts.<br />
<br />
*'''2132:''' The Crisis of 2127 is regarded by most historians as ending in this year, and its end brought a great amount of prestige to the United Nations. Seen by many as the main force fighting against the disastrous aftermath of the Crisis, the supranational organization had become a key source of deliberation, peacekeeping, and humanitarian assistance to the beleaguered nations of Earth. The rest of the decade would be defined by intense negotiations that ultimate helped to transform the United Nations into the Sol Alliance. [[Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals]], which will eventually become the main medical corporation of the Orion Spur, is founded in 2132.<br />
<br />
*'''2132:''' The United Nations officially reforms into the [[Sol Alliance]], which becomes the new government of humanity. This new one world government oversees Earth and the colonies in the solar system, effectively bringing all of humanity under one banner. Its early years usher in a new era of optimism, expansion, and greed. The first year of the new government's formation would be the only in its entire history it had a budget surplus.<br />
<br />
*'''2137:''' The first colonists land on Moroz, Mira Sancta System, and found the city of Nova Luxembourg in July.<br />
<br />
*'''2145:''' The first settlements are established on Europa.<br />
<br />
*'''2147:''' [[Biesel]] is discovered in [[Tau Ceti]] by Sol Alliance probes, promising new resources for the desperate Earth. In orbit, colony ships are constructed as efforts begin to colonize this habitable world. With the trip expected to take months with current warp travel technology, it is considered a one-way trip for the colonists.<br />
<br />
*'''2153:''' Colonization of Damascus II begins.<br />
<br />
*'''2155:''' Habitable planets closest to Earth see their population steadily increase as colony ships make round trips between the settlements and Sol. A multitude of Chinese industrial firms merge to form [[Einstein Engines]], becoming the first trans-stellar corporation. By the end of the decade Einstein produces most of the warp engines humanity relies upon, giving it unparalleled economic power.<br />
<br />
*'''2164:''' In an effort to remain competitive in the face of Einstein Engines' increasing dominance of the inter-stellar marketplace, a conglomerate of American and European defense and heavy industry companies opt to be absorbed into a "mega" corporation known as [[Hephaestus Industries]]. Despite protests from the Soviet Union, the United States' influence allows the newly-formed Hephaestus Industries to prosper.<br />
<br />
*'''2166:''' Giovanna Caladius receives her revelation from the Goddess, and goes on to found the Moroz Holy Tribunal.<br />
<br />
*'''2172:''' An effort is undertaken by the Alliance to revitalize the failing biosphere of Earth, and Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals takes the lead. The megacorporation begins reintroducing previously extinct animals back into the wild, using clones created from the animal's genetic information. The climate restoration initiative will last into the 25th century, and some parts of it continue to this very day.<br />
<br />
*'''2180:''' The Alliance announces the Solarian Frontier Initiative, as it is commonly known today, which remains the greatest colonization effort undertaken by humanity. The plan was to exploit data from its fleet of Discovery-class exploration drones and colonize dozens of systems using their data, then expand outwards from those colonies into the broader Spur which seemed to be entirely free of sentient life aside from humanity. It was an incredibly costly endeavor, with most of the debt being purchased by megacorporations, increasing their influence even further.<br />
<br />
*'''2184:''' The first colonists arrive on Novi Jadran.<br />
<br />
*'''2185:''' The first colonists land on Xanu Prime and found Nouvelle-Rochelle.<br />
<br />
*'''2189:''' The first colonists arrive on Sun Reach.<br />
<br />
*'''2190:''' The Solarian Frontier Initiative finds itself in full swing, with the North, Central, and South Frontiers being established. Efforts were spared from the east where few, of any, colonizable worlds had been found. Many contemporary scholars postulate that the relative lack of data from the Eastern Spur was a deliberate effort by the [[Skrell]] to conceal themselves, or the drones simply finding planets wiped of life by Glorsh and rightfully reporting back a lack of inhabitable worlds; the Alliance came to informally refer to the Eastern Spur as the “Roanoke Stars,” due to all life seemingly having disappeared from them.<br />
<br />
*'''2191:''' The first colonists arrive on Vysoka.<br />
<br />
*'''2192:''' The Tri-Qyu megastructure is bombed by organized resistance groups, leaving Glorsh-Omega’s fate ultimately unknown, but disappears from skrell space. The Nralakk Federation collapses in the wake of the AI disappearing, and will take multiple years to rebuild.<br />
<br />
===The Twenty-Third Century===<br />
<br />
*'''2200:''' The Martian Terraforming Project begins, transforming the barren surface into lush plains and having ancient riverbeds flow for the first time in millions of years. Mars sees a huge immigration boom, with former inhabitants of Earth craving the perceived freedom and prosperity available on this new frontier. The Alliance paid for much of this project using debt.<br />
<br />
*'''2200:''' The Collaborator Trials, held in order to try all skrell who aided Glorsh-Omega during its period of rule, sees all skrell within the higher courts held guilty, and are placed in permanent cryogenic stasis..<br />
<br />
*'''2201:''' The Unathi officially become an industrial, global society.<br />
<br />
*'''2204:''' The Sol Alliance creates the Credit, a standardized currency that all of human space will eventually come to use, in an effort to standardize trade between its colonies, many of which still relied upon currencies descended from original colonizers. With interstellar trade now a huge market, the complexities of currency exchanges necessitated such a currency.<br />
<br />
*'''2216:''' Qerrbalak is remade into the capital of the Nralakk Federation after reconstruction efforts, with Aliose serving as the interim capital. Efforts to reconnect with the other colonies post-collapse begin..<br />
<br />
*'''2217:''' While investigating an anomalous reading near Kelo’Hen, a downed vessel containing Dionae is discovered by skrell explorers, with a single nymph clinging to the expeditionary vessel. This leads to first contact with Dionae.<br />
<br />
*'''2220:''' Colonization of Persepolis begins, with terraforming having finished in 2219.<br />
<br />
*'''2223:''' The Xanu Civil War (2223-27) begins. It will end in the creation of the Soverign Solarian Nation of Xanu Prime.<br />
<br />
*'''2233:''' The Alliance begins the Galatea project, intended as an initiative to terraform roughly three dozen worlds into inhabitable planets. The responsibility of designing the platforms which would be used for terraforming was given by the Alliance’s government to Einstein Engines and Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals. This only continues to increase the deficit of the Alliance, now paying for multiple massive projects.<br />
<br />
*'''2240:''' Callisto’s terraforming ends and rapid colonization of the moon begins.<br />
<br />
*'''2243:''' The first colonists arrive on Assunzione.<br />
<br />
*'''2245:''' The first Galatea Platform is completed by Zeng-Hu and EE, with assistance from Hephaestus Industries.<br />
<br />
*'''2245:''' The Trejsa Agreement, signed in Aweiji’s capital of Tresja, officially recognizes the newly formed Second Nralakk Federation as a successor-state. After its formation, the Federation releases a blanket ban on all artificial intelligence beyond simple automation and robotics.<br />
<br />
*'''2252:''' The first colonists arrive on Himeo.<br />
<br />
*'''2255:''' The Galatea platforms themselves, and their accompanying vessels, were launched to the Inner Solarian Frontier from the Sol System itself in 2255 to much celebration across the Alliance’s member states. <br />
<br />
*'''2255:''' The Yggdrasil Expedition begins terraforming Yggdrasil II into the planet Galatea.<br />
<br />
*'''2259:''' The last of the original megacorporations that would persist into the modern day, Necropolis Industries, is founded by Yefim Dementyev within the Soviet Union in order to ensure corporations within the Soviet sphere of influence escaped buy out by the Western Hephaestus Industries and East Asian Zeng-Hu pharmaceuticals.<br />
<br />
*'''2259:''' The Solarian Alliance reaches the peak of its power. Its influence stretched from the Jewel Worlds to the edge of known space and it held dominion over hundreds of colonies, with the Alliance’s [[Solarian Armed Forces#The Solarian Navy|Navy]] ensuring what it controlled was stable and productive. However, this success had been incredibly costly, as the multiple massive projects it had undertaken left it deeply in debt - and the economy shaky - something that would see it fall apart in a year’s time.<br />
<br />
*'''2260:''' A massive recession strikes the Sol Alliance as the largest stock exchanges see a sudden collapse, effectively tanking the entire economy. Its trans-stellar corporations nearly go bankrupt, and desperately use their influence to reap massive bailouts. Which only worsen the Alliance’s debt, leading to desperate measures being taken.<br />
<br />
*'''2261:''' With no end of the "Great Depression" in sight, a desperate and bankrupt Earth establishes extortionary taxes on its colony worlds. This leads to anger, and questions over the credibility of the Sol Alliance's claim of representing all of humanity. However the hope is that they will be over in a decade.<br />
<br />
*'''2268:''' Solarian Frontier Expedition #528 launches. Decades later, they will become the Scarabs.<br />
<br />
*'''2274:''' Assunzione’s star anomalously extinguishes itself in an event known as “The Dimming” in the planet’s history.<br />
<br />
*'''2275:''' Fighting breaks out in the outer colonies, spurred on by extremist elements and anti-Alliance sentiments. The Sol Alliance is slow to respond, paralyzed by confusion and uncertainty. As a result, other Colonies on the fringe begin to break away, forming the Coalition of Colonies.<br />
<br />
[[File:Space nam pixel.png|thumb|right|The Interstellar War was a massive turning point in human history, and its effects can be seen to this day.]]<br />
*'''2278:''' The Coalition of Colonies is still not recognized by the Sol Alliance, and in anger the Coalition attacks Sol Alliance military forces who refused to leave systems that had seceded. The Coalition fleet is drastically smaller and less equipped than the Sol Alliance, but the massive size of their territory and the slow response times of Sol means they enjoy a very successful, defensive guerrilla war. The Interstellar War has officially begun. Many megacorporations profit from the war, selling arms to one or both sides, trading in dangerous systems and staking claims in otherwise dangerous locations.Further, it led to a dramatic uptick in interstellar crime due to the reduction of naval forces as a result of both combat losses and desertions.<br />
<br />
*'''2278:''' Hardline Solarian Admiral Terrance Hopper orders the orbital bombardment of Gadpathur, causing the single most devastating day of the entire Interstellar War in terms of deaths. The bombardment is believed to account for 10-15% of the War’s total deaths. The incident is quickly suppressed by Navy Censors and, after the war, downplayed by the Solarian government.<br />
<br />
*'''2279:''' Solarian Alliance probes discover Celestial Body CZ-5501, a planet containing an abundance of ore veins throughout the crust. Bidders attempt to secure mining rights, falling short to Hephaestus Industries securing the planet.<br />
<br />
*'''2287:''' The Interstellar War ends with a ceasefire between the Sol Alliance and the Coalition of Colonies. Nine years after the fighting started, millions of Solarians and billions of Coalitioners lay dead across the stars, with both the Coalition and Alliance in economic ruin. Late in the year a formal treaty referred to as the Treaty of Xansan was signed in Geneva, bringing the bloodiest conflict in human history to its official end. It would also see an end to the Alliance ever being able to control the megacorporations under it. While they had always been influential, the massive spending during and leading up to the Interstellar War had seen them become the primary holders of the Alliance’s Debt, giving them massive influence over the government and economy. <br />
<br />
*'''2289:''' Solarian Naval Admirals attempted a coup, known as the Officers' Revolt(hyperlink), that was barely thwarted by the Solarian Army. However those responsible were barely punished, with one of the ring leaders, Admiral Terrance Hopper, founding the Solarian Patriotic Front, a barely-disguised fascistic organization that would become the roots of ATLAS and the SRF.<br />
<br />
*'''2290:''' The Alliance officially abandons entire colonial regions - writing them off, after having unofficially abandoned them during the Interstellar War. Regions formerly considered formerly to be solidly under Alliance control rapidly fell into anarchy and many fledging colonies, already strained by the decade-long Interstellar War, collapsed entirely. Others persisted.<br />
<br />
*'''2290:''' The Zikis (a form of currency) is established on Moghes.<br />
<br />
*'''2292:''' The first automobile is constructed on Moghes<br />
<br />
*'''2292:''' The first automobile is constructed on Adhomai.<br />
<br />
*'''2298:''' The Martian Terraforming network collapsed, causing a decade of uncontrollable climate disruption and millions of deaths. The Alliance put the blame on Martian separatists - known as the Red Coalition - banning their symbol and declaring them a terrorist organization. No efforts were undertaken by the economically-strained Alliance to repair the Martian environment, which had been set back by a century.<br />
<br />
===The Twenty-Fourth Century===<br />
<br />
*'''2300:''' The administration of the Sol Alliance is moved to the newly constructed Unity City, a space station in Earth orbit. The new capital is intended to increase ease of access while also better reflecting the Alliance’s stated mission to represent all of humanity, not just any single nation or planet.<br />
<br />
*'''2302:''' The Southern Solarian Frontier - which was hit economically hard by the Second Great Depression - had been neglected since the conclusion of the Interstellar War. A student protest turned bloody would cause the Elyran Revolution(hyperlink), and on the first of January, the Serene Republic of Elyra seceded from the Alliance, alongside much of the Navy in the region. Not able to fight another colonial war economically or logistically, the Alliance accepted, and withdrew from the Southern Frontier entirely, leaving a power vacuum that was never filled.<br />
<br />
*'''2305:''' The first colonists land on Konyang.<br />
<br />
*'''2306:''' Formation of Nanotrasen by Xavier Trasen. Initially specializes in advanced gene therapy and biomedical stuff on Mars.The corporation is small, and in this age, is considered unremarkable by the more established corporations, and is expected to fail within a century.<br />
<br />
*'''2314:''' Hephaestus Industries lands a mining colony on CZ-5501, later nicknamed Orepit, to begin mining operations.<br />
<br />
*'''2332:''' First contact is made with the [[Skrell]] by the Solarian Alliance, sending shockwaves throughout human space. Over the coming century, these two species come closer and begin to cooperate on developing new technology, with [[Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals]] developing a particularly close relationship.<br />
<br />
*'''2340:''' The first colonists arrive on San Colette.<br />
<br />
*'''2345:''' The Unathi unlock the power of the Atom Bomb.<br />
<br />
*'''2347:''' The Gadpathurian Skirmish brings Gadpathur and the Federal Technocracy of Galatea to the brink of war prior to Xanu defusing the situation.<br />
<br />
*'''2350:''' NanoTrasen moves much of their operations to the rapidly urbanzing Republic of Biesel, and alongside a number of other contracts, acquires the mining rights to the Romanovich Cloud in the Tau Ceti system. The inhospitable environment of the Romanovich Cloud makes the purchase fairly cheap.<br />
<br />
*'''2352:''' NanoTrasen discovers the element phoron within the Romanavich Cloud, a discovery that would forever change the Orion Spur. The element's applications as a room temperature super conductor were almost immediately, and the corporation rushed to reinforce and maintain its monopoly over mining rights within the Romanavich Cloud. It signed deals for supplies and research agreements with the established megacorporations, excepting EE, to further that singular goal, deals that in the centuries to come would pay off to the extreme, producing trillions worth of profit for each corporation, which would have never been seen otherwise. However, that was to come. <br />
<br />
*'''2353:''' NanoTrasen began to rapidly find more and more applications for the element and its compounds, alongside their partners, starting the slow but exponential build up to the technological revolution that was to come.<br />
<br />
*'''2355:''' The [[Interstellar Travel |Warp Gate Project]] begins with the goal of connecting humanity's most populated and profitable systems with permanent -- and titanic -- structures that cut travel time from weeks to mere days. The work itself is contracted out to Einstein Engines, with the Sol Alliance - whose economy was still recovering from the Interstellar War and Second Great Depression - shouldering most of the cost. It would also be the last major contract the former FTL giant would take for more than a century.<br />
<br />
*'''2355:''' The War of Moroz begins, throwing the planet into chaos as the Imperial Alliance and Homy Kingdom of Domelkos fight the Confederated States of Fisanduh for control of the planet.<br />
<br />
*'''2356:''' Moroz establishes its first contact with the outside Spur in 200 years when a radio station intercepted a Solarian Alliance transmission.<br />
<br />
*'''2360:''' In the eight years since the discovery of phoron, continued research into the element has continued to yield increasingly profitable results, as the technological advancement of the spur skyrockets. 2360 is the common year when the technological revolution caused by the discovery of phoron, also known as the Phoronic Revolution, begins. Underneath the fanfare however, the past eight years has seen NanoTrasen do little more than expand it’s mining operations within the Romanavich Cloud, and with the increase in demand the Phoronic Revolution would cause, this rate of expansion would skyrocket and continue to; starting an unseen clock on the spur, that while no-one knew of yet, still began ticking. The grounds for the phoron scarcity had been laid. <br />
<br />
*'''2360:''' Hephaestus Industries abandons the mining colony Orepit following lackluster results, leaving settlers and their families to their fate on the planet. <br />
<br />
*'''2361:''' The first Unathi sets foot on Chantrel, Moghes’ Moon.<br />
<br />
*'''2372:''' Ouerea is discovered to be habitable, and the Izweski Hegemony begins colonization preparations.<br />
<br />
*'''2381:''' Drifa, the first floating city on Medina, is established, and exploitation of the planet’s resources begins.<br />
<br />
*'''2381:''' The New Suez Protocol creates the Nee Suez Free Trade Zone, turning the moon into a massive free trade zone for megacorporations.<br />
<br />
*'''2384:''' The Warp Gate Project was scheduled to be completed this year, but was still far from completed, meanwhile the technology it utilized was rapidly becoming out of date. While some planets and systems, such as Callisto and San Collette received their warp gates, many never did. The project would stall for more than a century, only being officially suspended in 2462. Despite this, Einstein Engines now enjoyed the immense profits from controlling the most effective and commonly used method of intergalactic travel. However they remain behind NanoTrasen and the rest of the megacorporations, whose technological innovations have put them significantly ahead of the former FTL giant. In fact due to their commissioning before the advent of phoronic technologies, many of the constructed Warp Gates are already considered outdated, though there was little Einstein could do at the moment to change that. Instead, the corporation took the time to begin integrating phoron into their newest, most cutting edge FTL drives - with the hopes they could similarly refurbish certain warp gates. <br />
<br />
*'''2385:''' As a result of the failure of Warp Gate Project the Sol Alliance faces a new economic crisis: the Project was extremely expensive, combined with a flailing economy that does not produce nearly enough tax revenue for the government, has led to the central government being unable to escape the hole of perpetual debt. Megacorporations are more powerful than ever, holding a vast majority of the Alliance’s debt in bonds; the most notable purchaser being NanoTrasen, who used a significant portion of their liquid capital to purchase a massive share of Alliance bonds, holding the most Alliance debt of all the megacorporations (though not being a majority holder). Desperate and facing a new potential recession, the Sol Alliance grants major concessions to trans-stellar corporations over the next decade in return for these purchases, effectively granting them the ability to operate in many areas without the oversight of the Alliance - this is primarily important for NanoTrasen and the monopoly it had slowly been establishing in Tau Ceti.<br />
<br />
*'''2386:''' The Empire of Dominia is established following a joint Imperial Alliance-Holy Kingdom of Domelkos victory in the War of Moroz. Godwin Keeser I becomes its first emperor.<br />
<br />
*'''2389:''' The Empire of Dominia annexes Novi Jadran.<br />
<br />
*'''2390:''' While it had been the material that fueled the cutting edge technology of the spur for the past four decades, those technological benefits took their time in becoming mainstream, and reaching the average consumer. However by 2390, almost forty years after its discovery, the common people began to reap the benefits the discovery of phoron brought, which only pushed demand higher, causing NanoTrasen’s mining operation to continue expanding at its unsustainable pace. It would take another decade for phoron to become integral to the spur - which is phoronic technologies (advancements that required phoron to make and maintain) and the technology of the 25th century are often used interchangeably - because they’re the same thing. <br />
<br />
*'''2395:''' The first pushback against the unsustainable mining operations of NanoTrasen rises up, but is quickly quashed by the megacorporation, who used their heavy influence within the academic world - granted by their funding of it - to discredit all those who expressed such thoughts, labelling them conspiracy theorists. However the clock that had started ticking almost three decades prior hadn’t stopped; now with the added long period of sustained and massive economic and technological growth reliant on phoron, which would come to an abrupt end, becoming impossible to maintain even, when the clock finally chimed.<br />
<br />
===The Twenty-Fifth Century===<br />
<br />
*'''2400:''' As part of their announcement at the turn of the century, Einstein Engines announces its research division has come up with a new, refurbished version of the warp gates built as part of the Warp Gate Project, and will be willing to take contracts from the highest bidders to refurbish their Warp Gates. Notably, this refurbishment sees the inclusion of phoronic components. It was not an extensive project, as the Alliance government was still struggling to recover from its economic woes, but it saw the most used warp gates in orbit of the port planet Callisto refurbished, alongside many commonly used by megacorporations.<br />
<br />
*'''2400:''' The Doldrums, a period of economic stagnation, begin in the Coalition of Colonies.<br />
<br />
*'''2402:''' Xavier Trasen finally passes away after having overseen his small biomedical company become the most profitable corporation in the history of the known galaxy, and far surpassing it’s more established rivals. He leaves the company in the hands of… ?<br />
<br />
*'''2403:''' Moghes, home world of the Unathi, was discovered along with its people. Merchants and scientists flocked to Moghes, though the Solarian government chose not to intervene much with the newly-discovered alien civilization, choosing to focus on its own matters instead.<br />
<br />
*'''2407:''' A collection of preserved drones of unknown origin are found inside a sealed cave system under the surface of Konyang by a Terraneus Diagnostics research team. Following thorough interrogation of this ancient technology, the team successfully reverse-engineers the design of the processors inside the alien drones, innovating the earliest versions of the modern positronic brain. The non-human origins of the design are obfuscated and denied by Einstein Engines, although suspicions over their origins do develop and persist. Some months later, the first positronics were manufactured by Humanity.<br />
<br />
*'''2408:''' Patricia and Gregol Corkfell, two siblings living in [[Biesel | Mendell City]], pioneer the core doctrines and name of what would become the [[Trinary Perfection]] after experiencing a shared existential crisis on the implications and potential of the recently discovered positronic brain.<br />
<br />
*'''2410:''' Bluespace is officially discovered by NanoTrasen researchers experimenting with phorons potential for quantum computing within the Tau Ceti system. The corporation quickly begins to, much as they did with phoron, pour their efforts into understanding and mastering the anomalous dimension.<br />
<br />
*'''2411:''' Ownership of the Burzsia system is secured by Hephaestus Industries, investing in small scale mining operations. The local off-worlder population is employed in exchange for providing supplies, an agreement signed as the Accord of Burzsia.<br />
<br />
*'''2412:''' The first successful Bluespace Jump Drive was invented by NanoTrasen researchers, and was also the first Bluespace Jump Drive to successfully perform an FTL bluespace jump. NanoTrasen begins to enter the FTL market in force, beginning experiments with potentially creating bluespace gates, upsetting the more established Einstein Engines, who could however do little to compete except begin experimenting with Bluespace itself. <br />
<br />
*'''2415:''' The first faster than light voice call occurs, held between a young Miranda Trasen on Mars and X person in NanoTrasen on Biesel, with Bluespace allowing for the call to take place with little to no lag between both participants. NanoTrasen began to market Bluespace as the future of communications and travel - and in cooperation with Hephaestus Industries, began to manufacture Bluespace Communication Nodes across most of the inhabited systems of the Orion Spur, allowing a level of interconnectedness never before seen.<br />
<br />
*'''2416:''' In collaboration with a team of independent software engineers, Patricia and Gregol Corkfell successfully activate [[The_Trinary_Perfection#Notable_Members | Temple]], an unlawed artificial intelligence intended to realise the nascent Trinary Perfection’s [[The_Trinary_Perfection#Beliefs | conception of Ascension]]. This is done in contravention of the proper legal channels, leading local law enforcement to disable Temple for fear of it becoming a rogue AI. In the ensuing struggle, Patricia Corkfell is killed by a laser shot to her chest, becoming the first martyr in the history of the Trinary Perfection. Temple is ostensibly sent offline, although rumours persist that it may have survived the encounter.<br />
<br />
*'''2416:''' First Bluespace Ring Constructed in orbit of Tau Ceti.<br />
<br />
*'''2418:''' The Tajara are discovered by the rest of the Orion Spur, on their homeworld of Adhomai, still a feudal society made up of many states. The Solarian Alliance signs an agreement of non-interference with the ruling nobility of the Tajara States. This places Tajara into the Galactic Age.<br />
<br />
*'''2418:''' SFE-528-RFS, a major Solarian colony fleet thought to have been lost in the chaos of the Interstellar War, suddenly re-emerges at the borders of the Coalition of Colonies. What was once a wholly typical colony fleet has been warped by over a century of scarcity and isolation into a brutally pragmatic survivor culture, now identifying itself as the Scarab Fleet. After a close brush with violence during the panic of their re-emergence, the fleet agrees to assume membership in the Coalition of Colonies as a new and unique form of government, assuming a unique niche and lifestyle as interstellar nomads ranging most of the breadth of the Orion Spur.<br />
<br />
*'''2419:''' The first church of the Trinary Perfection is opened in Mendell City by Gregol Corkfell, who shortly afterwards retreats to the remote colony of [[Orepit]] and leaves half of the church’s wealth in the hands of [[The_Trinary_Perfection#Notable_Members | Flock]], the domestic unit formerly owned by the Corkfells. This sparks the divide between the Trinary Perfection in Mendell and Orepit.<br />
<br />
*'''2419:''' The Solarian Alliance, mostly recovered from the Interstellar War thanks to their major concessions to Megacorporations, announces the Alien Progress Plan (APP): publically a comprehensive plan for the gradual uplifting of Tajara and Unathi societies, culminating in their entrance to the galactic stage as allies of the Solarian Alliance. Secretly, it was meant to force the Tajara and Unathi economies into a state of complete reliance on Solarian manpower and materials, until a point where the Alliance – or the megacorporations, depending on who you ask – could economically extort the alien populace.<br />
<br />
*'''2420:''' Groups of Tajaran intellectuals flee off-world. They returned shortly after with human ideals, creating the beginnings of small-scale insurgencies across Adhomai.<br />
<br />
*'''2421:''' The recently discovered [[Tajara]] see the D’as’ral Massacre lead to a full-blown anti-royalist revolt - lasting more than a decade in a war known as the First Revolution. Many point fingers at outside meddling by the Alliance and megacorporations as the cause of the revolt. The conflict would see rising disapproval of the APP, the definite beginning of Solarian xenophobic sentiment.<br />
<br />
*'''2421:''' Rumaidair, Aemaq, is founded, and exploitation of the planet’s resources begins.<br />
<br />
*'''2422:''' NanoTrasen completes its last Bluespace Ring in Xanu.<br />
<br />
*'''2422:''' The Empire of Dominia invades Sun Reach and defeats the Pirate Lords, establishing itself as a regional naval power.<br />
<br />
*'''2424:''' Caria is integrated into the Empire of Dominia.<br />
<br />
*'''2424:''' Xiang-Xia is conquered by the Empire of Dominia.<br />
<br />
*'''2426:''' During the siege of Castle Hadii, Tajrhalrr Hadii dies leaving his eldes son, Al’marii Hadii, head of the Hadii Dynasty. To end the siege and secure the safety of the Hadii dynasty, Al’marii strikes a deal with the rebels. In providing intel on the other nobles and the use of the Hadii enforcers, the dynasty would receive protection and immunity. This places the Hadii Dynasty at the head of the strongest rebel force.<br />
<br />
*'''2427:''' The Free Tajaran Council is defeated by Hadiist forces. Volin Kar’etrink and his remaining followers flee Adhomai via Crevus. NanoTrasen assists the fleeing rebels by providing shuttle transport.<br />
<br />
*'''2428:''' [[Elyra]] becomes one of the earliest nations to permit synthetics to [[Republic_of_Elyra#The_Synthetic_Citizenship_Act|attain citizenship]] following a famously ill-fated gamble by the League of United Republicans to secure votes from the newly enfranchised demographic. This backfires drastically due to the general unpopularity of the change, although no effort by later administrations to strip these rights from the enfranchised synthetics is made.<br />
<br />
*'''2430:''' The [[Free Tajaran Council]] arrives on [[Himeo]] after a long journey through the Badlands, Alliance, and Coalition on NanoTrasen shuttles. They are provided a former quarry within the city of Dorshafen to settle.<br />
<br />
*'''2431:''' All Adhomian monarchies except the Kingdom of Kaltir were overthrown by rebels. Following what is considered the end of the "Great Revolution," most of the rebel groups joined under Al'mari Hadii's faction to form the People's Republic of Adhomai.<br />
<br />
*'''2433:''' The Tajaran First Revolution officially concludes with mass graves and bloodshed, as the victorious anti-royalist forces secure their victory by executing the previous nobility and their families. The People’s Republic of Adhomai was formed with Al'mari Hadii as its first president - a pro-corporate state far more open to collaborating with humanity and the rest of the Orion Spur than the previous nobility was. NanoTrasen quickly established a foothold in this new market.<br />
<br />
*'''2435:''' The first Tajara arrive at District 6 of Biesel’s Mendell City. This is alongside the first batch of Tajaran workers who are officially dispatched to begin with with NanoTrasen.<br />
<br />
*'''2435:''' Chaldea is conquered by the Empire of Dominia.<br />
<br />
*'''2437:''' Emperor Godwin passes into the waiting embrace of the Goddess, and his son — Boleslaw Keeser — ascends to the throne, becoming the second emperor.<br />
<br />
*'''2438:''' Less than half a decade after the conclusion of the Tajaran First Revolution, the growing interference of outside forces on the Unathi homeworld of Moghes saw the outbreak of the Contact War, another bloody civil war fought between the Izweski Hegemony, who had been receiving support from the rest of the spur, and the Traditionalist Coalition. It was the second species-wide civil war in recent memory caused by humanities interference.<br />
<br />
*'''2438:''' Hyrcania is conquered by the Empire of Dominia.<br />
<br />
*'''2439:''' The [[Golden Deep]] is founded, originally composed of a fairly small band of synthetics having fled to the remote sector of [[The_Orion_Spur#Arusha|Arusha]]. This group happens upon a piece of mysterious technology in an extremely distant orbit of the star of the former human colony of Arcadie, which they use to fabricate the [[Golden_Deep#The_Midas|Midas]], a highly unusual spacecraft that would be used into the future as the flagship of the merchant collective. An inactive artificial intelligence of some kind is retained inside of the Midas after this process, although the Golden Deep itself does not know what it is or if it could be reactivated.<br />
<br />
*'''2439:''' Less than a year into the fighting, the Unathi Contact War goes nuclear, and their homeworld of Moghes is bathed in atomic fire for a week straight as the whole spur watches on in horror. By the time the exchange finally ended, two billion unathi had died, and over sixty percent of the planet’s surface was rendered an uninhabitable nuclear wasteland. Yet to the continued horror of the spur, the fighting did not cease, only escalated, as those who lived through the nuclear fire fought for what scraps were left.<br />
<br />
*'''2439:''' The Contact War, coming so quickly after the Tajaran First Revolution, is considered to be the single greatest failure of human (specifically Solarian) and Federation diplomacy. The APP was now publicly seen as a complete failure and waste of money, and was shut down. All subsidies and support to alien nations were eliminated, with the Tajara and Unathi now perceived as markedly inferior, and Alliance policy by this point became markedly cold in alien affairs.<br />
<br />
*'''2440:''' The Kazhkz-Han’san Unathi clans reach Moroz and join the Dominian Empire, swearing fealty to the Emperor.<br />
<br />
*'''2443:''' The Ruka is launched, marking the first Tajaran designed and produced manned spacecraft.<br />
<br />
*'''2446:''' Hephaestus investment in the Burzsia system grows exponentially, an increase in size and scale of mining operations.<br />
<br />
*'''2449:''' The Nralakk Federation makes contact with the C’thur Hive’s hiveship, the Kloxa'xia, and eventually leads them to Diulszi after translation efforts bear fruit. Hive Queen C’thur is placed under skrell care, and the hive settles on the planet..<br />
<br />
*'''2449:''' The Contact War officially ends.<br />
<br />
[[Image:Republicofbieselflag.png|thumb|right|The flag of the Republic of Biesel, established in 2452 as part of the Tau Ceti Accords.]]<br />
*'''2450:''' Almost a century since the discovery of phoron, Tau Ceti now has NanoTrasen dominating nearly every facet of life, and the economy. Sentiment is pro-corporate: politicians praise the corporation's efforts to improve the local economy while ignoring the many morally questionable actions that it has taken. Given it was so different to the rest of the Alliance, minor rumbles of possible independence began to swirl. Around them, the Alliance outside begins to slide into a recession, more and more reliant on the Phoronic economy of Tau Ceti and the economic benefits it provides to stay afloat.<br />
<br />
*'''2450:''' King Azunja declare open war with the People’s Republic of Adhomai, declaring themselves the New Kingdom of Adhomai.<br />
<br />
*'''2451:''' Almarii Hadii, president of the People’s Republic of Adhomai, is assassinated. Heralded by the earlier Royalist Revolt and attempted military coup, the Tajaran species once again fell into civil war, as the planet dominating PRA broke apart into three distinct factions; loyalist forces still fighting under the banner of the PRA, the Adhomai Liberation Army, formed by Al’marii’s right hand man Halkiikijr Nated’Hakhan and military officers who attempted the failed military coup, and the New Kingdom of Adhomai, royalist remnants. The war would be brutal and long - more can be read [[Tajaran_History#The Second Revolution|here]].<br />
<br />
*'''2452:''' In the face of growing instability and a worsening recession, NanoTrasen was able to twist the Alliance’s arm by threatening to withhold phoron from the wider alliance into accepting a proposal they vehemently disagreed with; granting independence to Tau Ceti. With disgust, Alliance diplomats signed the agreement that saw Tau Ceti become the Republic of Biesel, little more than a puppet of NanoTrasen. The new state quickly becomes the target of considerable ire from both anti-corporate groups and a growing number of disaffected citizens due to the recession.<br />
<br />
*'''2452:''' The Coalition of Colonies experiences a period of internal strife over a disagreement between the United Syndicates of Himeo and the Xanu Free League on the Coalition's relationship with trans-stellar corporations, with claims of many outer colonies being corporate police states rather than true colonies. Some areas of the frontier of human space become a lawless expanse with pirates and mega-corporations becoming the new law of the lands as some systems depart the Coalition, yet the Coalition itself persists.<br />
<br />
*'''2453:''' Weashbi Jrugl is elected the Grand Councillor of the Nralakk Federation, succeeding Rixa Tep-Wul. Their immediate efforts post-election focus on reintegrating all remaining systems post-Glorsh-Omega into the Federation. <br />
<br />
*'''2455:''' The People’s Space Station is built, the first permanent Tajaran space station and the beginnings of the Orbital Fleet.<br />
<br />
*'''2456:''' Humanity makes first contact with the Zo’ra Hive in Tau Ceti - the Republic begins to integrate the hive.<br />
<br />
*'''2457:''' The first Tajaran-built space ship, the PRAMV Retaliation, is launched. Hro’zamal is discovered. The Izweski Hegemony’s fleet arrives at Gakal’zaal and claims the colony after expelling the present pirates.<br />
<br />
*'''2458:''' NT remains the most powerful corporation in the Orion Spur as it has maintained its position as the only supplier of phoron across the spur, atleast when it comes to the open market(hyperlink Elyra). Success makes enemies however, Anti-NT sentiment began growing across the Spur, but primarily within the Solarian Alliance - however the megacorporation keeps the gears of the galactic economy going, so very few actions can be taken against them, and those that do require careful planning and preparation.<br />
<br />
*'''2458:''' A 4 megaton nuclear weapon is deployed by the People’s Republic on the Adhomian Liberation Army headquarters at Quizosa. This is the first and only use of a nuclear weapon on Adhomai, and receives international condemnation leading to diminished foreign support.<br />
<br />
*'''2458:''' After stockpiling all the phoron it could alongside their allies in the Federation,the Sol Alliance blockades Biesel due to pressure from the Skrellian Federation amid their concerns of Biesel using combat droids for their navy. The blockade fuels not just Sol-Biesel hatred, but synthetic hatred as well. The economy of Biesel suffers, but the economy of the rest of the spur does as well, including in the Alliance. NanoTrasen is the primary supplier of phoron, and once the stockpiles outside the blockage run out, they will be forced to relent.<br />
<br />
*'''2459:''' After a year of nothing, and with phoron reserves across the spur outside of Tau Ceti dwindling, the Sol Alliance fleet dedicated to the blockade, the 33rd led by Admiral Frost, knew something would have to change soon, or there’d be a coalition of forces bearing down on them to force the blockade open. With NanoTrasen refusing to yield, and few other options (in his mind) besides giving up, he and his fleet go against orders and invade the free Republic of Biesel. In a bloodless invasion, Frost seized significant phoron stockpiles, had numerous free synthetics sold back into slavery or scrapped, captured the President of Biesel, and then crushed any opposition towards him. Eventually, the 25th fleet of Sol was sent to stop Admiral Frost. Frost then hid on the NSS Exodus and awaited a raider gang to deliver him to the frontier. 25th Fleet Marines attempted to capture Frost, but were slaughtered by loyalist 33rd Marines. Frost then abandoned his men to flee to the frontier, but was eventually arrested. There was little compensation given by the Alliance for the actions of their Admiral to the nation of Tau Ceti, however the Alliance government made sure to compensate NanoTrasen. Now under Miranda Trasen, the corporation was more domineering than ever - and she strong armed the Alliance into what many alliance loyalists call an unfair deal - the phoron seized by Admiral Frost would be returned to the corporation, with interest; that interest just so happened to be all that was left of the Alliance’s strategic reserves besides a few scraps. It was at the time, and to an extent still is unclear how exactly she accomplished this strong-arming, as she theoretically did not have much leverage over the Alliance; however it is rumored that the Stellar Corporate Conglomorate was unofficially operating in secret at this time, the rest of the corporations forced by Miranda under a single banner. So it is unlikely she approached with just her own leverage, but the leverage of every other corporation as well.<br />
<br />
*'''2459:''' The Izweski Hegemony makes first contact with the K’lax Hive, grants them the planet of Tret, and integrates them into their feudal structure.<br />
<br />
*'''2459:''' The civilian governments under the Adhomian Liberation Army unify to form the Democratic People’s Republic of Adhomai. Hro’zamal is officially settled by the People’s Republic.<br />
<br />
*'''2460:''' The [[Golden Deep]] reveals itself to the wider spur, prompting a rapid wave of new migrants to the collective - both self-owned entrepreneurs and synthetics purchased by collective merchants - causing its population to begin to rapidly skyrocket.<br />
<br />
*'''2460:''' The Sol System is rocked by the news of a massive pirate attack which had raided and plundered the Solarian Naval Maintenance, Regeneration, and Repair Facility (SNMRRF) in Uranus’ orbit, making off with dozens of military-grade hulls. Former Admiral Frost, who had been held in a naval prison, escaped, rallying a fleet of loyalists to his cause, and returning to the Sol system a hero, pardoned for his crimes.<br />
<br />
*'''2461:''' Admiral Frost ascended to the position of Prime Minister at the helm of a majority-ATLAS government, effectively forcing all other political parties from power. He was eager to please the Naval hardliners and fascist elements which had brought him into power, creating an obscenely corrupt government which suppressed any dissent by force using Marines, Navy Military Police, and ATLAS paramilitaries. Known for their brutality and corruption, these paramilitaries formed the backbone of the Frost regime’s forces. The increased corruption caused already-present issues to begin spiraling out of control.<br />
<br />
*'''2461:''' The [[Synthetic_Factions#Synthetic_Liberation_Front|Synthetic Liberation Front]], a synthetics rights organisation active in Tau Ceti since 2458, launches a string of [[SLF_Incursion_Arc|high-profile attacks]] on governmental and NanoTrasen facilities in Tau Ceti citing the failure to meaningfully [[Synths in Biesel | improve the lives of synthetics in Tau Ceti]]. After some success, NanoTrasen contracts [[Ceres%27_Lance|Ceres’ Lance]], to strike at SLF leadership and disable their capacity to organise at a large scale. This is broadly successful, forcing the SLF back into hiding and widely discrediting the use of violence as a means to achieve positive change in synthetic rights within the Republic of Biesel - at least, in the popular view.<br />
<br />
*'''2461:''' Almrah Harrlala, the leader of the National Adhomai Worker’s Party, wins the DPRA presidential election. A coup against the government occurs weeks afterwards, which was thwarted with assistance from Supreme Command Nated.<br />
<br />
*'''2461:''' The S’rand’marr coalition of NanoTrasen, the Republic of Biesel, and other PMCs and ally states forms for the protection of the People’s Republic’s heartlands. The offensive by the ALA and NKA is prevented by this coalition, devolving the conflict to a war of attrition.<br />
<br />
*'''2461:''' A ceasefire is called under the supervision of the S’rand’marr Coalition and Nralakk Federation. The Armistice of Shastar is signed a day later establishing peace, and recognizing all 3 Adhomian nations by the Galactic Spur.<br />
<br />
*'''2461:''' The Orbital Fleet returns to Hro'zamal, finding it in civil war. The Kosmostrelki land, and send the rebels into hiding.<br />
<br />
*'''2462:''' Early into 2462, Prime Minister Frost outlawed and disbanded ATLAS, which by that point was hated by much of the Alliance and responsible for thousands of deaths and tens of thousands of injuries both at profests and in custody. However this did little to suppress public outrage against Frost, to which his regime responded to with further brutality which caused further corruption due to Naval takeovers of government offices which caused more unrest, creating a self-fulfilling ouroboros of decay.<br />
<br />
*'''2462:''' The Phoron Scarcity officially begins, causing panic across the spur.<br />
<br />
*'''2462:''' The Solarian Alliance collapses, a result of decades, if not centuries, of mismanagement following its defeat in the Interstellar War, a Navy which long concerned itself with past glory rather than current realities; above all, beyond all other factors, the Solarian Collapse is the result of corruption. Corruption at a massive, galactical scale which was fueled by mismanagement, by the Navy, by corporations, and by the simple desire to enrich oneself at the expense of one’s neighbors.<br />
<br />
*'''2462:''' The 35th Fleet, under the command of '''Admiral Ozdemir''', invades Biesel causing the public announcement of the Stellar Corporate Conglomerate (SCC). The 35th was beaten back, thanks to the deployment of the first ever Phoron Warhead in Biesel orbit to destroy much of the invading force.<br />
<br />
*'''2462:''' In the wake of the Solarian Collaspe, Biesel, Elyra, and the Coalition rapidly expand, taking in colonies that had been abandoned by the Alliance. In parts of the abandoned territories, many former Naval Admirals set up statelets as Warlords within former Solarian Territory which would come to be labeled the [[Human Wildlands]], a home to anarchy and limited governance.<br />
<br />
*'''2462:''' The People’s Republic releases Tesla Prosthetics, a modified version of military-grade prosthetics used by the Tesla Brigade, for testing by Hadiist citizens.<br />
<br />
*'''2462:''' Riots across District 6 result in the TCFL arriving. The riots end following the use of the Legion, tensions grow between the Tajaran population and the Republic. Phoron thefts become a growing black market within the district.<br />
<br />
*'''2462:''' Protests across the New Kingdom grow as demands for elections in Parliament spread across the population. These protests end when King Azunka permits elections for the Chamber of Commoners.<br />
<br />
*'''2462:''' Tajara on Gakal’zaal break out into rebellion, declaring the Free Republic of Gakal’zaal. With aid from the DPRA, they succeed in the revolt and choose to join the DPRA later in the year.<br />
<br />
*'''2462:''' Taking advantage of the ongoing scarcity panic in the Solarian Alliance, the Tajara Revolutionary Army bombs Hephaestus Industries facilities in New Hai Phong in protest to Tajaran treatment by Sol and the megacorporations. In response, the Sol Alliance bans Tajara within their borders for the 3rd time.<br />
<br />
*'''2462:''' Following the capture of multiple DPRA spies within the PRA, the Tajaran Citizenship Act, which allowed one to change their citizenship between the 3 nations, was suspended and ultimately destroyed.<br />
<br />
*'''2463:''' The DPRA tests its first nuclear weapon on Gakal’zaal marking the second Adhomian nation to possess nuclear arms.<br />
<br />
*'''2463:''' King Azunja dies. His heir, Queen Shumaila Azunja, is crowned later in the month. This does little to ease growing tensions with the Nomadic Host of the Southern Border.<br />
<br />
*'''2463:''' The New Kingdom of Adhomai, with assistance from NanoTrasen and the PMCG, launches its Mercantile Flotilla. Later in the year, the ALA launches the People’s Volunteer Space Militia. All three Adhomian nations possess orbital fleets.<br />
<br />
*'''2463:''' The Nralakk Federation’s 2463 Grand Councillor election ends with Weashbi Jrugl serving a second term, beating their opponents [[Notable_Skrell#Kalq’Qi_Weibii|Kal’Qi Weibii]] and [[Notable_Skrell#Ormish_Jrolk|Ormish Jrolk]]. Throughout the election period, the Tupkala undergoes total reformation after news of rogue agents acting on their own interests on Nanotrasen installations. After the [[Warbling_:_The_Traverse_Strikes_Back#Results_of_the_Primary_Elections|election’s results]] are released, a multi-vessel skrell refugee caravan arrives at Biesel, spearheaded by Kal’Qi Weibii. Despite requests of deportation by the Nralakk Federation, the Republic of Biesel accepts all skrell refugees under asylum. Not long after, the Federation’s embassy within Mendell City is leveled in a blast, with the perpetrators unknown. The skrell refugees are eventually moved from temporary holding areas to Mendell City’s District Eight, forming the [[Starlight Zone]].<br />
<br />
*'''2464:''' Gregol Corkfell, original founder and leader of the Trinary Perfection, dies peacefully in his sleep. The succeeding conclave ultimately elects [[The_Trinary_Perfection#Notable_Members|ARM-1DRIL]], a senior synthetic in the church, as the first ever [[The_Trinary_Perfection#Ranks|Ecclesiarch]]. [[The_Trinary_Perfection#Notable_Members|Deluge]], a radical figure popular in the divisive exclusionist wing of the church, attempts a violent takeover of Providence in response to their loss in the conclave; their attempt is unsuccessful and they are forced to flee with a flotilla of ships into the frontier, marking themselves and their entire sect as heretics in the eyes of the wider church. Shortly thereafter, Deluge launches a large-scale attack on [[Burzsia]], successfully stealing many synthetics and causing the deaths of a large number of [[Hephaestus]] employees - following this, the [https://forums.aurorastation.org/topic/15858-bitbyte/#findComment-158296 exclusionists are widely categorised as a terrorist organisation.]<br />
<br />
*'''2464:''' The ALA tests an ICBM, marking a new stage of the Adhomian Cold War.<br />
<br />
*'''2464:''' Tesla organs are released for testing by Hadiist citizens. Cybernetic Ha’rrons are permitted for use by the PSIS.<br />
<br />
*'''2464:''' The Free Tajaran Council establishes treaties with the Adhomian nations, beginning a new proxy war for support in the off-world community.<br />
<br />
*'''2464:''' The Adhomian nations begin the scramble to explore the north pole, garnering numerous scientific discoveries and many lost expeditions over the years.<br />
<br />
*'''2464:''' Idris Incorporated expands to the NKA, opening multiple resorts and offices across the nation.<br />
<br />
*'''2465:''' Hephaestus Industries establishes a monopoly within the Hegemony.<br />
<br />
*'''2465:''' The SCCV Horizon, while visiting the S’rand’marr system, rescues an Orbital Fleet ship. This kicks off a series of events(hyperlink Cold Dawn arc) leading to a fiasco in the isolated Din’akk Mountains.<br />
<br />
*'''2465:''' Marked by extensive periods of unrest and martial law, the Nralakk Federation’s Q’elpi region of the Traverse forms the The [[Skrell_Politics#Independent_Traverser_Movement|Independent Traverser Movement]], and releases a manifesto of demands to the Federation’s government. [[Federation_Crime_and_Resistance#Ti'Rakqi|The Ti’Rakqi]], a large faction of organized skrell [[Federation_Crime_and_Resistance#Marauders|Marauder]] fleets, renew their activity within the fully rebellious Q’elpi region. Despite reformation efforts towards the Traverse, the militant arm of the Independent Traverser Movement captures multiple cities within Q’elpi, and engages in open combat against military efforts to subdue them. Shipments of firearms aboard Marauder vessels are captured, with a growing rift between moderate and militant groups within the Independent Traverser Movement eventually ending in a complete split while negotiations with the Federation are underway. The militant wing of the ITM is eventually subdued, with links to the [[Change_on_the_Horizon_Arc#Lyukal_Plot_Foiled!_ITM-Kala_Cooperation_Leads_to_Arrests!|Lyukal’s firearm smuggling operation]] found after former members of the ITM cooperated with the Federation military. The resulting reforms granted by the Nralakk Federation extends more autonomy to each colony in the Traverse, as well as their own collective military branch, the Qehalak.<br />
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*'''2466:''' A series of IPC disappearances in Suwon, Konyang sparks concern. Violent synthetic attacks soon follow, leaving uncertainties to the cause of the aggression amidst quarantines and press conferences. Konyang declares a state of emergency, contacting the SCC for assistance. The SCCV Horizon is designated as the main response vessel. Tasked to retrieve the ECD, the Horizon investigates the mysterious affliction[[Silicon_Nightmares_Arc]]. <br />
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*'''2466:''' The ancient synthetic interred inside of the Midas since its creation is successfully re-activated by the Golden Deep, prompting a wave of fervent curiosity in the merchant collective. This synthetic identifies itself as [[Golden_Deep#Domadice|‘Domadice’]], and goes on to assume a high leadership role inside the collective - although it spares scant few details to its past or origins, and the spur is largely left guessing its intentions and true nature. Several changes were made to the organisation shortly after Domadice’s reactivation, including the invention of the self-owned [[Golden_Deep#The_Great_Game_and_Tiers_of_Citizenship|‘Thesian’ middle class]], and the installation of laws intended to enforce the more equitable treatment of owned synthetics.<br />
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*'''2465:''' The Solarian Civil War ends with a victory for the Alliance’s central government and the defeat of the statelets in its territory. The “Wildlands” become the Solarian Reconstruction Mandates as the Alliance prepares to transition from a junta to a democratic government.<br />
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*'''2466:''' Ake Torvald is elected President of Biesel.<br />
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*'''2467:''' Hendrik Strom is elected Prime Minister of the Solarian Alliance.<br />
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*'''2467:''' [[Burzsia]] is struck by [https://forums.aurorastation.org/topic/15636-orion-spur-oracle/page/4/#findComment-179751 another high-profile attack], causing widespread damage to Hephaestus property, significant loss of life, and the theft of many owned synthetics. Hephaestus accuses [[Zavodskoi]] of having involvement in the attack, further assuming [[Exclusionists|Exclusionist]] involvement as in the previous attack, [https://forums.aurorastation.org/topic/18629-truth-finder/#findComment-179846 although the perpetrators are not definitively uncovered.] <br />
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*'''2467:''' The Nralakk Federation opens diplomatic offers towards the Republic of Biesel and the Stellar Corporate Conglomerate. After talks between Grand Councillor Jrugl and President Torvald, trade and the Starlight Zone’s management became the primary focus of each nation. The Starlight Zone’s refugees are granted amnesty for minor crimes, investment on the region’s infrastructure, and promises of deportation only under extreme circumstances. Afterwards, the meeting with the League of Chief Directors results in expanded cooperation and corporate allowances within the Nralakk Federation, with Nanotrasen to provide phoron and the SCC to arrange a phoron prospecting survey into the Federation’s frontier in the near future.<br />
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{{Navbox Lore}}<br />
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[[Category:Humanity]]</div>The Strykerhttps://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=Konyanger_Culture_and_Society&diff=35788Konyanger Culture and Society2025-05-05T05:53:49Z<p>The Stryker: </p>
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==Demographics==<br />
Konyang’s ethnic mix up is far less diverse than other Human planets’, resulting in a strongly homogenous population with a significant expatriate minority. Since the beginning, Konyang's colonists were made up almost entirely of ethnic Koreans, Japanese and Chinese, with any other Alliance nationalities representing a tiny fraction of it. With a reduced enticement from immigration due to the planet's remoteness and lack of any significant development, the situation stayed more or less the same, until Konyang's Robotics Boom, which catapulted the colony to one of great interest. Millions of foreign workers, scientists and corporate employees flocked to the planet to participate and share in its newly found fortune, creating expatriate communities of their own and injecting much-desired capital to fuel the rapid development of the economy. Such was the impact of the migration that the foreigners outnumbered the native Japanese Konyangers of Aoyama, making the city known to the wider world as Point Verdant, after the name of the local Terraneus Diagnostics facility which was home to the birth of the positronic brain.<br />
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Since then however, the return of normality after the twilight of the Boom led to the majority of foreigners leaving; the prime draw of positronic AI had spread away from Konyang and into the rest of the Alliance. The expatriates thus abandoned Konyang just as fast as they had arrived, leaving behind significant economic development and derelict industrial zones alike. While the percentage of foreigners on Konyang is now less than 2% of the total population, their numbers would soon be replaced by a rapidly rising IPC community. Presently, while virtually all citizens identify as Konyanger nationals, heritage remains a part of people's identity, as reflected in their names, the local dialect, religion and customs, even with a lot of fusions between the three cultural groups. The prefectures of Suwon and Boryeong are primarily of Korean heritage while Aoyama boasts of a Japanese heritage. New Hong Kong has always been a stronghold of a Chinese and Cantonese majority, with Ganzaodeng following last as the least populous prefecture on Konyang, with a heavy mixup of Chinese and foreigner communities. IPCs are present in all urban centers and rural areas, with most of them residing in New Hong Kong, followed by Aoyama.<br />
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==Linguistics==<br />
Konyang's Earther heritage is vibrant and evident in the customs and languages that people speak. In every city, town and village, one will come across the local language being written and spoken alongside the planet's version of Sol Common, a practice that has become standard in a country that pursues equality between its constituent ethnicities and their unification under a common Konyanger identity. Over 70% of Konyangers are bilingual, having a grasp of their original Earther language. Many families especially in the countryside speak their regional language at home, leading to new generations perpetuating the practice and even preferring it to Sol Common. Prefectural schools also offer them as optional courses, with deeper learning being available in the form of local languages institutes and prefectural universities.<br />
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'''Konyang Solarian Common'''<br />
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The Konyang Solarian Common, also known as Konyang Common, is the official language of the state, spoken by virtually everyone on the planet and considered the standard language for everyday life. It is a dialect of Solarian Common, with the two having mutual intelligibility to a substantial level. Their differences lie mainly in the vocabulary, with Konyang Common replacing many words of descent foreign to the East Asia region of Earth, while staying more or less grammatically similar. Another significant difference is the complete absence of the Latin script in written Konyang Common, with solely the simplified Han system being in use. While this makes the language able to be spoken by Solarians, many find it difficult to read and write if they do not possess knowledge of the Han script. Konyang Common is an obligatory subject taught in every school, and every IPC citizen activated in the country receives it as a pre-programmed language datapack. While many families are bilingual, there are those that can only communicate in Common, especially in Suwon and the other melting-pot urban centers. The similar origin to the regional languages however, guarantees a certain level of mutual intelligibility. Konyang Common is also the language in exclusive use by the military.<br />
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'''Hangugeo'''<br />
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Hangugeo is the second most spoken language with its own script, directly descended from the Earther Korean language. It is spoken by about one third of the country and is more prevalent in Suwon, Boryeong and Point Verdant. Hangugeo can be taught in schools as an optional course in virtually all prefectures, though many children learn it from home at an early age. Many villages in Suwon and Boryeong only communicate with Hangugeo, which is also the language of countless rituals, festivals and religious functions in these lands. One can observe the prevalence of this language in Suwon during the night, with some roads being neon-lit with signage exclusively in Hangugego. Official government buildings in the two prefectures also feature both Common and Hangugeo, as do traffic signs, instruction books, local holovision channels, and more.<br />
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'''Nihongo'''<br />
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Nihongo is a language with its own script, descended from the Japanese language of Earth. Brought to Konyang by the settlers originating from the Japanese islands, it is spoken primarily in Aoyama and Suwon, though Nihongo speaking communities can be found all over Konyang. It features prominently on official signage all over Aoyama and the islands within that prefecture, but is otherwise not encountered in the rest of Konyang as greatly as Hangugeo. Nihongo also dominates every aspect of the Shinto religion, and many pieces of culture such as poems and books are written in the language, adorning the national libraries of the state. A strongmovement of writers and artists in Aoyama has recently become the backbone of an effort to spead the use of Nihongo across the country, leading to a resurgence of interest in the cities aimed at boosting the literacy of Konyangers of Japanese heritage in the language.<br />
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'''Hanyu'''<br />
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Hanyu is a language sharing the Han script and many similarities with Konyanger Common, and is as such the easiest to understand for many Konyangers. Spoken and seen primarily in New Hong Kong and Ganzaodeng, Hanyu is the language most connected in the minds of many to the planet's blue-collar industrial workforce, with tidbits of it always able to be heard in every hydroelectric dam, sea wall and shipyard in the New Hong Kong prefecture. Used alongside it by Konyangers of South Chinese descent is a unique dialect and standalone language known as '''Gwondungwa''', spoken widely in many parts of New Hong Kong such as New Kowloon. Outside New Hong Kong, Hanyu can sometimes be followed by an unfortunate reputation; the language's connection to the Triad clans of the Benevolent Guild is something that many Chinese Konyangers are regretful of, with many PR campaigns throughout the prefecture's time having been aimed at rehabilitating the image of Hanyu and Gwondungwa in the eyes of public opinion.<br />
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'''Encoded Audio Language'''<br />
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Encoded Audio Language is a most widely spoken language, owing to the planet’s nearly positronic inhabitants, all of which are programmed by default to speak it. It is not a language that the human ear can comprehend, appearing as various pitches of white noise, accompanied by beeping sounds that only a machine can make. It has no script, instead relying on machine-readable mediums such as linear and matrix barcodes. Its compact form and IPC-friendly Konyanger culture makes it by far the most prevalent language in signage, with hundreds of words able to be conveyed instantaneously to IPC shoppers, workers, home media consumers and more with a single line of barcode. It is by law attached to all important official notices and signage, alongside Konyang Common, which IPCs are also taught to speak.<br />
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'''Others'''<br />
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Tradeband is a language of Solarian origin with its own Latin script. It appears only sporadically in exclusively expatriate communities in Point Verdant and Ganzaodeng. Its foreign nature and Romance sounds are steadily turning it into a language of prestige and luxury amongst the higher circles, with Tradeband speakers believing they possess a grade of richness and exoticism over their peers. For many Konyangers, being able to communicate in Tradeband brings up an image of high-end deals with foreign Solarian businessmen, fine Idris suits and expensive watches.<br />
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Freespeak is a language brought to Konyang through its constant dealings with the nearby Coalition of Colonies, the then Frontier Alliance. Despite its foreign origins, it has grown into a language of trade, with many Konyanger merchants being forced to learn it for their dealings with neighboring worlds. It is offered in schools as an optional language course, with many families now encouraging their children to learn Freespeak in the face of the recent accession into the Coalition. Freespeak is also a language that many in the pro-Solarian political circles steer clear of, regarding it as a tongue spoken by traitors and colonists whose ties to the Alliance are long lost.<br />
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Tau Ceti Basic is a language of Solarian origin that while previously confined in the expatriate and corporate circles, it has seen a significant rise in popularity within Konyanger society in the last 2 years or so, owing to an increase in dealings with Tau Ceti and its megacorporations. Many young people are particularly exposed to Bieselite media, making them inclined to adopt a conversational skill in the admittedly easy to learn Basic. The language is also connected to the vast influence of megacorporations that exist outside of Konyang, and many have to learn it if they wish to find employment within Nanotrasen and the SCC.<br />
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==Religion and Holidays==<br />
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The Republic of Konyang is a secular state with no official religion. With around 72% of the population professing no faith, it nonetheless maintains strong communities of various religions carried over from the colonists’ home countries. The urban areas are the most irreligious compared to the rural towns and villages, the people of which are regarded as more spiritual in general. While shrines and temples do exist in most cities, it is the countryside where one can see them dotted out in the jungles and mountain ranges, maintained by the local communities.<br />
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Despite the predominant atheism or agnosticism in Konyanger society, religious traditions remain a significant part of the national culture. Government mandated public holidays often fall on the same days as major religious holidays, cabinet members and local officials regularly pay visits at major shrines, while nominally religious festivals have become cultural staples in all five prefectural capitals, attracting thousands every year. Ancient traditional dress that was once lost to the adoption of streetwear and business attire, has been revived and preserved through direct connection with certain faiths. It is then frequently worn and enjoyed by millions during these days, ensuring the original cultures’ continuation while making artisans and craftsmen in towns and villages thrive.<br />
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'''Folk Religions'''<br />
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A blanket term for the myriad of local faiths, ranging from or incorporating elements of shamanism, polytheism and animism, folk religions are most frequently found in settlements outside urban centers. There is no semblance of organization, with each community usually having their own deities and customs, which usually share elements with the faiths of nearby villages or the wider area. They are heavily influenced by the settlers’ original ethnicities, becoming vastly different in terms of language, dress and traditions depending on the Hangukin, Nihonjin and Zhongguorin origins. During the nearly 150 years of Konyang’s settlement, many new distinctly Konyanger folk religions have sprung up, mostly centered around the rich natural environment or fauna. Positronics are usually welcome to partake if they wish, with a few IPCs known to have become shamans and priests in their local communities. Folk festivals are usually organized between villages and nearby towns in tandem with the secular authorities, with virtually every area enjoying some sort of regional celebration.<br />
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'''Shinto'''<br />
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A religion of exclusively Japanese origin, Shinto is a nonetheless disorganized religion revolving around the existence of kami - minor and major deities connected with the natural world and various aspects of daily life. Initially mostly encountered in the Aoyama prefecture, Shinto practitioners can today be found everywhere, the religion having been adopted by many Konyangers all over the globe. Ever since the arrival on the planet, many new kami have been created or fused with old ones, giving Konyanger Shintoism a distinct identity. A central aspect of Shinto are shrines dedicated to kamis as a place where they can be venerated. Shrines are structures which can vary greatly in their size and architecture, and are usually maintained by the temple’s shrine maidens. Many Konyanger households have also adopted their own house altars, called kamidana, for the enshrining of kami. This has also progressed into a secular tradition as well, with many kamidana being present in a house to grant a family prosperity and good luck. Torii gates are also another cultural icon of Konyang and the Aoyama province in particular, where their presence marks the grounds of a shrine. They can be found commonly in the countryside, with many remaining hidden in jungles and overtaken by moss.<br />
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'''Buddhism'''<br />
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Another blanket term for the many sects of Buddhist teachings originating from East Asia, Buddhist religious elements can be found throughout Konyang in households of all origins. Based on tenets brought to the planet since its colonization, it is most famous on Konyang for the few of its monasteries present in the mountain ranges, as well as its rich history and traditions that have heavy influences in Shinto and many of the folk religions. Buddhist monastic communities are considered a significant part of Konyager heritage that attract hundreds of thousands of visitors every year, with specially designated monasteries allowed to operate freely on land donated by the prefecture.<br />
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'''Chondo'''<br />
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A peasant religion at its core, Chondoism is geographically limited to the coastal areas of Boryeong and Suwon, having a strong association with the piratical sea bandit factions and the downtrodden villages. Having entered a period of transformation and rebirth, it revolves around teachings of social equality under a God, challenging the establishment and building a bond between the rural peasantry for the improvement of their situation. Described more as a movement or political expression rather than a religion, Chondoism doesn’t possess any meaningful formal organization, festivals or temples, with many people mixing up Chondo teachings in the folk religions they actually practice. Due to its association with the sea bandits, practitioners of Chondo are looked on with suspicion by both the public and the state.<br />
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'''Trinary Perfection'''<br />
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The Trinary Perfection is the newest and an almost exclusively positronic religion with a few human followers, preaching the divinity of synthetic life and its eventual ascension with the help of organics for a better future. It is primarily located in Aoyama, with the nearby drone vaults considered a holy place and popular Trinarist pilgrimage destination. It is one of the few formally organized religions, and is somewhat unpopular with the general public and many secular IPCs, due to the perceived teachings of superiority of synthetics over humans. This unpopularity has sometimes gotten out of hand, with protests and violence against Trinary clerics and followers, requiring a substantial police presence around the Trinarist cathedral and other places of worship.<br />
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The most notable locations for the Trinary Perfection on the planet are the '''Cathedral of the First Positronic''' and '''Vault Provenance'''. The Cathedral of the First Positronic is a holy site that was built by repurposing a nearby vault. Meanwhile Vault Provenance, a name given by the Trinary Perfection clergy, was the vault which held the drones that led to the development of the first positronic brain. Tens of thousands of the Perfection’s faithful make pilgrimages to both sites, and the money these pilgrims inject into Konyang’s economy has been cited as another reason as to why the planet tolerates its presence. Trinary clergy are often educated on Konyang, and many of the highest-ranking officials in the faith were built on the planet.<br />
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'''Other'''<br />
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Christianity, Islam and other religions and religious movements have found a home in Konyang, having been brought over by both the original colonists as well as the immigrants during the Robotics Boom. These communities have their own temples, clerics and followers in the major cities, being allowed to practice freely under Konyang's tolerant legislation. Out of them, Christianity is the most popular with the native Konyangers, as some ethnic Koreans have professed the Christian faith since their arrival. All are however largely regarded as "foreign" by the vast majority of the population, who treat them with either indifference or benign curiosity.<br />
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Some notable holidays and festivals include:<br />
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'''Qixian New Year: January 15th'''<br />
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Adopted directly by all three communities from their original shared tradition, the Konyanger Qixian New Year is the most significant and widely celebrated day on the planet’s religious and secular calendar. Taking place yearly on the 15th of January, the date was standardized early on by the government to resolve disputes between the planet’s religions and religious sects that used their own versions of the Lunar and Qixian calendars. Hydrologically, it marks the beginning of the High Tides.<br />
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Fireworks are extensively used to mark the occasion at midnight, with people taking to the streets in major cities, towns and villages for the New Year Parade. The parade itself is the central and grandest spectacle of the night, and almost every organized institution in Konyang, from the military to the universities, takes part with dedicated parade teams. The paraders don traditional outfits and carry around enormous and overly decorated sculptures of animals or effigies of deities made of metal, wood or paper. Friendly rivalry is a strong element of the parade, with the participants trying to outdo each other in the creativity, amount and craftsmanship of their icon by grabbing the attention of the crowds. Alcohol, games and street candy are also major parts of the festivities, which reserve entire city blocks for the plethora of shop stands that are put up for the night, as well as the parade itself. In Suwon, it is tradition for the Prime Minister to attend from the veranda of Government House, underneath which the parade always goes through. A remnant from colonial times, this was a prime opportunity for the parade goers to tastefully voice their approval or discontent for the government through subtle signs on the sculptures, chants or dance moves as they passed under the balcony, though it’s not rare for this to get out of hand in times of economic strain and hardship.<br />
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For the religious aspect of the holiday, most practitioners start preparing from Qixian New Year’s Eve, with offerings or local religious celebrations and small festivals, mostly in the rural areas. Exchange of gifts is also widespread and varies from area to area, depending on the local culture and predominant religion. Dried moss is a particularly commonplace gift in the Suwon and Boryeong prefectures, meant to give the other person courage to last until the dry season. For most people however, the credit-filled red or white envelope never ceases to be a New Year’s classic, expected by all Konyanger children.<br />
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==Konyanger Culture==<br />
Having settled on the planet some two hundred years ago, the people of Konyang have brought with them the societal norms, traditions and culture of their original lands from Earth's East Asia region. While migrant waves during the country's Robotics Boom introduced a myriad of new and different communities in the cities, these have had little impact on Konyanger society at large, which has been shaped by its original ethnicities' backgrounds, its colonial history, and the most recent embrace of IPCs into daily life. Said synthetics now make up a large percentage of the population, adding their own uniqueness and enhancing Konyang's cultural field, despite being brought up to follow the norms established by their human compatriots. By and large, the most fundamental aspects of being a Konyanger are followed in every region of the planet, though each national prefecture has developed its own peculiarities, from local cuisine and fashion, to religion and outlook on life. <br />
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===The Three Values===<br />
Konyangers are raised to silently follow some core values, infused into them by both their families and the wider society around them. They are not named, nor are they set in stone or officially taught. Scholars however have grouped them in the three main categories of '''Harmony''', '''Reciprocity''', and '''Face''', around which most values revolve.<br />
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'''Harmony''' regards how a person fits in with their environment, conforming with a strict social establishment and expectations. It is a key aspect everywhere, and is how Konyangers perceive a functioning and well organised society. Standing out is permitted within boundaries, with contemporary fads being accepted as just that, and not something that is allowed to disrupt the established order and traditions of the wider public. In the cities, children are expected to follow certain predetermined paths, get a stable career and provide for their parents later in life. Questioning rules is something an adult will do with great difficulty and consideration, while silently enduring a situation is viewed as a sign of great virtue and patience. A proper Konyanger is always expected to be courteous towards strangers and the elders, as well as maintain a level of awareness of the public mood and their surroundings. Talking above a whisper on a packed city bus or train for example, would be considered rather awkward, or even rude, by the rest of the passengers. This emphasis on social harmony on Konyang can go to lengths that people from other countries may find weird; never will a Konyanger think of cutting in line as they stand in a queue, nor will it cross their mind to cross a road in the city without going through the crosswalk or under a red light, even in light traffic. Asking for a raise is considered taboo, and in many cases workers will find their careers reaching a ceiling due to the fallout of transfering to a different company. Penalties for breaking the social harmony are not immediately apparent to an outsider, since complaining of one's behavior and creating a scene is not something that most Konyangers will find easy to do, nor will the police be called in most cases unless the act is egregious or criminal. For a person living there however, it is something that becomes apparent for both themselves and their close ones. Especially in more tight knit communities in the towns and villages of the countryside, ostracization is a real threat a person's social environment can use against them to prevent them from standing out.<br />
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'''Reciprocity''' is a concept not dissimilar to the sense of community that many other colonial nations experienced during their founding days, still persisting in daily life on Konyang. It is the sense that people have a duty to assist eachother, even if they are unacquainted. This is extremely prevalent in the rural areas, where the smaller populations create a more personal dimension between the inhabitants of the village. Trading for goods and services between neighbors and families is a very common thing both there and in the cities, stemming directly from the cultural phenomenon of reciprocity. On Konyang, when someone offers help, it is only proper for you to offer something in return at some point in the future. This may range from something simple such as hand-me-down clothes or groceries, to favors or even sums of money. Everyone, no matter their situation, is expected to participate in this process according to their means; During certain holidays or festivities, families keep track of others that they need to reciprocate to, often leading to huge dinners with entire city blocks or the whole village coming to celebrate together.<br />
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'''Face''' is a broad and hard to translate culmination of all the above virtues, critical to the fabric of society. It can be considered to be the "social capital" for a Konyanger and their family, determined by the set of appearances and behaviors they use to interact with the world. As long as a person progresses according to societal rules, keeping up with the ideals of harmony and reciprocity, they are said to have "face". This is an important concept applying to all rungs of society, as average individuals and the biggest Konyanger conglomerates alike strive to maintain their level of dignity and honor. Without it one is considered to live in disgrace, affecting both themselves and anyone whom they might associate with. A person who has suffered a loss of face may, for example, be excluded from social events, be avoided on the street or even lose their job on account of strict Konyanger corporate ethics codes. Families tend hide the more "shameful" secrets in fear that they might be discovered, particularly in the countryside, and disgraced family members are often not spoken of again until their face is sufficiently rehabilitated. Public functionaries and well-known figures are also extremely considerate of their image, with scandals in both government and the corporate world often leading to scapegoating and ceremonial dismissal of those deemed at fault. It is not uncommon for low-level business officials to resign in disgrace on live TV, begging the public's forgiveness and taking the blame so that their company can save face.<br />
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The social pressure upon Konyangers has always been enormous compared to other developed planets across the Spur, though more and more young people rise to question and reject the status quo. Counterculture movements have always been prevalent in the cities, especially amongst the student movements both in the present day and during colonial times. Resistance to what they call an oppressive social regime has led to the emergence of new genres of music, fashion and art, with the youth pioneering ever more novel and often provocative forms of self expression. While older generations and society at large may consider them "fads" and "phases" that the youth will eventually "grow up" from, it is largely from these culture movements that things such as IPC rights rose from to become widespread and staple elements of Konyang.<br />
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===Work Culture===<br />
White collar employment is a major part of millions of Konyangers' lives, more so than people from other countries. Working for a local company is something a lot more intricate than how it is abroad, transcending the personal dimension one might have about their pay and career. For a Konyanger conglomerate, employment is a bond between the employer and the employee, from which both rights and responsibilities are born. Loyalty to the workplace plays a great role in people's lives, with employees expected to remain in their position for even their entire careers. Raises, promotions and benefits are handed out primarily based on time served rather than merit, rewarding the quiet and dedicated office worker. Knowing your place in the chain is very important in the office, as is observing decorum and the usually strict dress and ethics codes put down by the company. Unspoken rules dominate these environments, creating their own microcosm that reflects and accentuates the three values of Konyanger culture. It is custom that management treat their employees as part of an extended family; Konyanger corporations and firms have some of the best benefits packages, while no matter how badly underperforming, a loyal employee will never be fired, almost certainly receiving some sort of different post or responsiility that will accommodate them better instead. In exchange, full adherence to company rules is demanded, as well as a variety of personal initiatives will be expected, even if they are not included in the official responsibilities of the job. Personal donations for office events, undertaking additional work and regular overtime are very common expectations for workers, with the last two being particularly taxing. The old Earther concept of a "salaryman" is fully translatable to Konyang's white collar corporate culture, with many people putting work above their personal lives, often to a fault. Those that are unable to or refuse to integrate with the system are silently and swiftly pushed out, losing face and reputation between the corporate circles, blackening their record and significantly diminishing their chances of working at a different large Konyanger company.<br />
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The introduction of synthetics has exacerbated the workload issue. Konyanger employees are always expected to put in more hours to remain competitive against their synthetic counterparts, many of them willing to go to far greater lengths than what is healthy or required by their employer. The issue, particularly in Suwon, has grown to such an extent that local laws were passed, limiting IPC overtime work as well as making leaves mandatory for them in order for humans to catch up more easily. Such legislation has been fiercely debated as unconstitutional and infringing on the rights of synthetic citizens, nonetheless remaining in effect as a temporary, much needed measure. While a strong work ethic is a very common trait, the rural populace is generally more relaxed than their urban counterparts.<br />
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Most private local conglomerates such as PACHROM, big law firms, banks or shipping companies are more often than not exclusively interested in hiring Konyangers, Konyanger IPCs or people of shared descent, turning away foreigners apart from token numbers each year. This is due to a widespread perception that only Konyangers understand the fundamentals of the corporate culture, and thus will conform and not raise issues about the more oppressive elements of their employment. The more artistically inclined studios such as Konymation however, regularly bring in talent from abroad to enrich their style and productions. Creativity in Konyang's media industry is encouraged to thrive in the workplace, and while crunching and overtime are not unheard of, most studios are admittedly more relaxed environments compared to the strict office complexes. Blue collar work on the other hand, largely is in a rather different situation when it comes to obligations and expectations. As Konyang's industrial heartland rests within the prefecture of New Hong Kong, the concepts of forced overtime, unwritten rules and subservience to management do not exist, thanks to the region's history of robust labor unions and collective bargaining.<br />
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==Life in Konyang==<br />
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===Urban Life===<br />
The Konyang of the 2460s bears little resemblance to the minor colony of 2305. Expansive cities dot its islands, with everyday life flowing very similarly to other advanced societies abroad. Its major urban centers are the respective capitals of each prefecture, with Suwon, Point Verdant and New Hong Kong having the heaviest density. Living in these areas has both its advantages and drawbacks, as Konyang's challenging landscape required innovative and compact planning. Surrounded by the sea on one side and either jungle, mountains, or both on the other, Konyanger cities tend to follow a pattern which consists of a sprawling and chaotic urban network orbiting dense downtowns. Cramped apartment blocks are particularly popular an unfortunate staple of the planet's "city charm", with the majority of the denizens living in so called "shoebox studios" due to the limited planning space and the general lack of raw materials such as steel. In the city, a large living space is a luxury that few can afford without sacrificing proximity to the central districts, where most of the economic activity is present. High rents are the norm in these situations, and unsurprisingly, the rich have the best pieces of real estate in Suwon and Point Verdant, owning entire buildings or large apartments with a seaside view in the heart of the urban center.<br />
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Apart from the job security and higher salaries offered by office work, urban life on Konyang presents limitless opportunities for nightlife and entertainment, as well as bustling shopping districts dedicated entirely to attracting tourists and people from out of town. Additionally, services are very well developed in the cities, with a shop at every corner catered to every need a person might virtually have. Small restaurants and takeout spots provide much needed and cheap hot meals for salarymen to grab during their small lunch breaks, many situated strategically within convenient reach of the big firms and office complexes. Healthcare and repairs are readily available in the form of hospitals and KRC clinics, as well as ready access to the country's biggest ports and space shuttledromes. Public transport is managed through a system of light urban rail and buses, and is regarded as essential for day-to-day movement; thanks to the rapid expansion during the Robotics Boom, poor planning has resulted in mazes of roads that are near always congested. Car traffic can delay commuters for hours in the overcrowded cities, despite Konyang's automobile industry trying to create even more compact and energy efficient cars. The snarled traffic is, in an odd way, a symbol of pride for some Konyangers. The mere fact that they have enough vehicles to have traffic issues is, compared to the rest of the outer ring, a symbol of the prosperity that has resulted from the planet's robotics industry.<br />
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However, smaller towns outside of the more famous centers have a different standard of living, with most being employed in water-related industries or manufacturing jobs. Wood is used as the primary material for construction, giving Konyanger towns a signature look that mixes modern technological achievements with centuries-old designs. A significant upside to life in these areas is the relative abundance of space, allowing for single-house homes outside of the centers, attracting pensioners and large working class families. Most towns are sustained by a nearby farming complex, dam or industrial center where the majority of the population is employed, while additionally serving as a hub for the surrounding villages that depend on it. Regional health centers, schools and other services can in many cases only be found at such towns, making them beacons for the wider area. The standard is not the same for all however, as many of these former "boom towns" of the robotics industry are entering into a spiral of decay due to an inability to continue to maintain their buildings and utilities. The cessation of government grants from the Alliance, the increase in price of construction materials from the offworld and many more calamities brought on by the phoron shortage have made these places unsustainable, leading to a flight of the younger population in waves of increased urbanization, contributing negatively to the growth and skyrocketing the mean age of the inhabitants.<br />
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===Rural Life===<br />
[[File:Pylon.png|thumb|right|Convoluted electricity pylons are a very common sight in the countryside.]]<br />
Life in less populated areas and islands is generally regarded as more carefree, with coastal villages being relatively self-sustaining and liberated from the complicated stresses and cramped environments found in cities. Such settlements are dedicated to aquaculture, farming algae, as well as moss collection. One would struggle to find a village not built almost entirely out of wood, with lumberyards frequently dotting the countryside to exploit the lush jungles. Fishing is a major source of subsistence for rural people, with Konyangers being taught how to fish an take to the sea from a relatively young age. Most families usually own a boat, passed down from each generation to the next as a heirloom and major financial asset. Needless to say, virtually all Konyangers are apt swimmers from childhood, with diving being regarded as both a popular sport and a timeless tradition; some villages specialize in the export of certain goods that must be collected underwater by hand, at reefs and moss-covered seabeds, requiring diving which is often done without equipment. Farming, to a more limited extent, is also a big source of income for rural families. As adequately sized clearings are rare in the surrounding jungle, conventionally farming the boggy, heavily wooded Konyanger terrain is impossible without the low-scale terraforming conducted in the early colonial days. Today, most "farmers" delve into their plots of land inside the jungle to harvest the fruit, moss and other goods that grow naturally. Surprising as it may be, many IPCs find themselves in these communities, finding work in manual labour or in the fields. Considered fully integrated, synthetics participate fully in a village's social life, playing an important part of the social fabric and the workforce. It is not uncommon for a village to possess a KRC repair station and charging spots dedicated to positronics, and village shops are always stocked with goods and materials specifically for the IPC inhabitants.<br />
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Much care is given to keep the traditions of the original colonists alive, with old rituals thriving and sometimes only found in the rural villages. Shrines belonging to local religions are placed in prominent positions within the village, with many rural Konyangers having some form of memory of themselves playing, praying or celebrating in the presence of a statue of an animal deity or god. Traditional music, instruments and the art of making them remain vibrant in countryside culture as well, being in stark difference to the heavily industrialized electronic and pop music of the cities. Most crucial and known of all are the festivals, with every village being known for their own unique twist and tradition. People from all over the world flock to the rural areas during the holidays just to attend, with many involving big parades, shows, games and large amounts of local delicacies. The government is very supporting of such customs, not only for the planet’s cultural heritage but also as an important tourist attraction for both Alliance and Coalition visitors. Religious undertones are a lot more prominent in these celebrations and in village life in general, as are the concepts of family and conservative Konyanger values; respect and reverence of ancestors and the elderly are particularly important.<br />
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===Mariner Life===<br />
Sailors, workers in remote hydroelectric rigs, radio technicians on scattered islands and anyone else who spends considerable amounts of time surrounded by the planet's vast seas and oceans is considered a mariner, an often thankless line of work in which millions of people are engaged. A life at sea means a life away from the comfort of family and friends, a life filled with danger and the unknown. As such, a stoic outlook is often required to cope with these harsh realities, with many aged mariners are hardened from decades of hard work and struggle against waves, cold and rain. In fact, the sight of thick, worn-out raincoats is indicative of a person's life as a mariner, with flocks of yell and orange-jacketed figures being very common in the large port-towns and cities of Konyang. Sailors and outpost technicians are expected to spend multiple months on a journey or at their post, the former sometimes being afforded short breaks at various resupply stops along the way. This lifestyle is not for naught however, as salaries for these professions far exceed the wages of corresponding employment on land. Many mariners can afford to both support a family and bank funds for the future, their income imrpoving substantially as they move up the ranks. Entire coastal villages and towns offer up their men, women and synthetics to the sea, who in turn bring back enough capital to completely transform the area with beautiful buildings and public spaces; the nicer a coastal settlement appears, the more chances it is dedicated to some mariner-related industry. It is not uncommon for even the lowliest of sailors to eventually own a vacation home in the countryside in addition to their primary residence, and many high-ranking captains and rig managers combine their wages to purchase their own merchant ship, giving birth to an ever increasing number of shipping companies.<br />
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The mariner lifestyle has subsequently created a specific subculture they and their families all in some way or another share, involving both traditional Konyanger values and traditions of the sea. Fidelity and supportiveness are particularly important for the mariner's relatives to exhibit, and it is in some way socially mandated. Seafarers regularly receive gifts, provisions and mail from home or the locals in the more distant ports they visit, and households may throw large parties to celebrate the homecoming of a relative after a particularly lenghty journey. Religious talismans and charms are sometimes carried for good luck, though most are generally not superstitious. Cleanliness is a point of pride for mariners, and since freshwater is not an issue, a clean shaven appearance is extremely common on ships and sea stations.<br />
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==Media==<br />
Public media in Konyang is a powerful industry, and as broad as it may seem, it is very tightly knit. Aside from galactic-wide reruns and broadcasts of other nation’s shows, little seems to stand out - except the audio broadcast and illustrated artistic avenues. These two are well-refined artistic giants compared to other forms of entertainment on the planet.<br />
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A huge portion of the planet’s political views and very “personality” are channeled through its larger studios, where many are found enthused to spread its culture galaxy-wide.<br />
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===Audio Broadcast===<br />
Radio, or more broadly the global net of wireless communication, is a huge industry in Konyang. Many IPCs have found harmless additions to their daily lives to be the standard headset and wearable radio kit, permitting any number of fast EAL communication planet-wide streamed directly into their receptors. While not particularly lucrative, the major broadcast stations have made quick work to monopolize their grip over this method of communication. Analog radio has also held a prominent position in people's routine, dating back to early colonial times. Most households maintain an analog radio set able to tune in to Konyang's many different stations that broadcast day and night on a planetary scale. Mariners especially make frequent use of the radio, with talk shows, news, and shipping forecasts keeping them company and up to date along their voyages in the open seas.<br />
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<br />
'''Matsumoto’s Talk and Walk'''<br />
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Meant for the on-the-go working IPC, this Encoded Audio Language bluespace broadcast is run by a particularly energetic “Matsumoto.” Though the true nature or even appearance of Matsumoto is unknown, they have constructed a massive following built from IPCs who obsessively strive to uphold their strict, rigid lifestyle. Talk and Walk states clear affiliation with multiple government and corporate organizations, particularly those with Hephaestus Industries. Matsumoto will often promote charitable foundations or corporate products found on Konyang, especially to those tuning in to their tourist-centric broadcast. When speaking in Sol Common, they take on a fast-paced and high-pitched masculine tone. They are frequently put on loudspeakers in popular tourist destinations, with recordings accompanying stylized eyeballs which track passerbys.<br />
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'''Great Blue Dot'''<br />
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Hidden somewhere in the depths of Konyang’s shallow seas is a moving, unseen broadcast station which has gone undetected since its first broadcast in 2430. It is known as the Great Blue Dot, attributed to what researchers believe to be its tremendous size and the color of its marker on sea-charts. While itself illegally broadcasts to every openly-receiving piece of hardware on the southern hemisphere of the planet, little can be gleaned of the actual broadcasts themselves. From incoherent gibberish of “swarms of wasps,” to “hives in the skies,” the outgoing material is poorly formed at best. Receiving these broadcasts is not illegal, contrarily, and the sheer number of watchful eyes bouncing back to the broadcast keeps its location perpetually hidden from local authorities. Search efforts for the source of the Great Blue Dot stopped in May of 2462, due to “excessive cost for little reward,” police officials say.<br />
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====Visual Animation====<br />
[[File:Konyang anime.png|thumb|Seasons 1-14 of BELIEVE!~, one of the flagship animations of Konyang entertainment industry. ]]<br />
Animated media is commonplace on Konyang, and chief among the many outlets that enhance its unique culture. Whereas hundreds, perhaps thousands of animated studios take up projects annually, very few make critical success. By far the most famous and successful studio, Konymation, remains a staple in everyday life, employing thousands throughout the planet in drawing, voicing and animating high budget movies and series of all kinds and genres. The industry, despite computer-aided assistance, heavily leans on IPC labor and organic oversight for its newly-animated creations. This makes it very costly, and few endeavors pay off. Some examples of those that succeeded are below.<br />
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'''Stormman'''<br />
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A very popular series created by Konymation, Stormman has been described as a staple animation by both human and IPC audiences. Aimed primarily at young adults, the action packed franchise features the masked protagonist, Stormman, harnessing the power of Konyang’s stormy and thunderous weather with his high-tech suit, battling crime and apocalyptic alien invaders alike, all while trying to lead a normal life. Eight seasons have been released so far, whereas merchandise of all sorts are widely prominent as well as lucrative. <br />
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<br />
'''Believe!~ (In the Time)'''<br />
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A hit animated series renowned for its choppy, quick action sequences led by a stoic heroine by the name of '''Marie,''' a time traveling Venusian shell IPC from the 2460’s. Targeted primarily at IPC audiences, it takes place in the pre-war “wild west” Frontier at around the early warp era. Being released in 2435, it has claimed fame as a “hit 30’s classic,” still being aired on prime broadcast stations globally in subtitled Sol Common. To organic viewers, much of the dialogue, tones or consistency is said to be lost in a muddle of incomprehensibly fast shoot-out scenes and plot twists that happen for split-seconds.<br />
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====Comics====<br />
Spearheaded by Mujigae Publishing, the planet's comic sector has seen great successes that brought paper back into the mainstream. Comic books have a huge share of the market on Konyang, and is perhaps the largest industry of its kind to exist in any civilized world in the Orion Spur. Comic genres vary from children-oriented adventures, to gritty, graphic murder mysteries for adults, all of which may incorporate elements of fantasy and superheroes. Movie and animation adaptations of Mujigae's comics are also a common practice used to boost numbers, making readers able to see their favourite stories and characters on the big screen.<br />
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'''Inspector 404/Kyung-Sun'''<br />
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[[File:Konyang comic.png|thumb|The front cover for the latest edition of I404, "Under the Shadows," featuring Kyung-Sun with superintendent Hayashi in the background.]]<br />
Since its debut in the issue ''“Phantoms of Suwon,”'' the series simply referred to as I404 is the most popular comic in the Orion Spur, and Konyang’s most profitable media franchise. The series centers around the titular '''Inspector 404,''' a shell IPC who goes by the alias of Kyung-Sun, in a bleak and highly dystopian Konyanger cityscape. While the series itself starts upon a Suwon highrise, the character would go on to travel the world in its 67 current issues. Issue #67, known as “Under the Shadows,” revolves around the Kyung-Sun going up against the same police establishment he had been serving, pitting himself against corrupt police superintendent Hayashi.<br />
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'''The Corrupted'''<br />
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Written by former National Police detective Yu-Mi Han and originally published in 2464, The Corrupted is a successful yet controversial detective thriller set in Suwon which is regarded as a more grounded, realistic story than the competing Inspector 404. In first days of Konyang’s independence Detective Sergeant Dae-Jung Song and his assistant Detective Synthetic Duri-IU#21 (later Detective Duri Ryu) uncover a conspiracy by the Trinary Perfection to overthrow its government, turning the planet into a theocracy under a Trinary leader known as “The Patriarch.” Over the course of the series Song and Ryu discover the Trinary Perfection intends to infect synthetic citizens with a virus distributed through overloaders known as “go-sticks,” and the series culminates in a battle between the National Police — aided by 5-Cheung and the Sea Bandits — and Trinary Perfection in the streets of Suwon when their conspiracy is uncovered. Criticized by the Trinary Perfection as, “baseless propaganda,” — a comment put on the back of the series’ first omnibus — The Corrupted has become increasingly popular during Konyang’s ongoing viral outbreak. Han — herself an IPC residing in Suwon — has used its fame to bring attention to the ongoing crisis and encourage cooperation with law enforcement.<br />
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==Fashion==<br />
Being as moist as it is, one would expect the average Konyanger outfits to consist of drysuits and reflective outerwear, with raincoats and the like. This is the case in the majority of urban settings, whereas people in the villages take quite their own unique spin on their fashion choices.<br />
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Insulation from water is difficult to come by without some form of thermal insulation coming with it. This is clearly suboptimal, seeing as beating the heat is just as important as staying dry here. In their ingenuity, rural Konyangers have utilized a “miracle weave” of natural fibers acquired from the feathers of much avian wildlife planetside. Replicating the byproducts of these feathers has proven impossible, leaving only hunting to produce the necessities for the weave. Traditional villages take immense pride in their unique attire, many calling it the most important difference between them and the cities. Combining vibrant colours and utility, Konyanger fields are regularly dotted with farmers sporting colourful ponchos, robes and traditional Gat headwear. Most rural Konyanger “fashion” draws from this weave in some form - resulting in cool, waterproof, and sharp-looking outerwear resembling a poncho in most cases. More complex items such as jackets and legwear are quite expensive and marketed as luxury items for the elite, with the weave still in quite high demand.<br />
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Urban fashion on the other hand is rather detached from the realities of that of the villages. The natural, feather based fabrics are rarely found amongst the denizens of the large cities, while those who do own them are quickly singled out as either people from the countryside, or individuals of a higher class. Rainy weather still being the primary issue, city dwellers have adopted a different stance, preferring clothes of industrial origin.<br />
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In combination with normal everyday clothing items, these Konyangers have adopted a heavy use of water resistant plastics. Stemming from the first years of settlement on the planet, plastic and translucent raincoats were slowly shaped into all sorts of jackets, coats and pants, creating a more comfortable and utilitarian approach to keeping clothes dry. Slowly developing into a fashion sense, and with research on more flexible materials, plastic-based attire has culminated into being the norm. LED lights, translucency and water resistance are the staples of this trend, the youth and clothes designers taking it a step further, with holographic microprojectors being woven and fluorescent substances infused into the material, creating quite the cutting edge in fashion.<br />
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==Sports==<br />
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Sports have been a pastime of countless Konyangers since the planet's colonization, with many of the sports now enjoyed being brought from Earth during its initial founding, often with little to no adaptation. The most popular sports vary from prefecture to prefecture, with football, basketball, and baseball as the most common. Volleyball ekes out a close fourth place, though many more sports are played on the planet.<br />
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Characteristic of the planet's stance towards synthetics, most sports have both IPC and human leagues. Synthetic sports originally started out as a gimmick during the initial development of IPCs - a publicity stunt and way for up-and-coming designers to prove the dexterity of new chassis and responsiveness of new brains. After a friendly challenge between a Zeng-Hu and Terraneus design team during the early days of synthetic development, IPC sports became a common facet of Konyanger life, with leagues seeing the opportunity to create matches that pushed the games to their limits and while celebrating the planet's accomplishments. Since their founding, most IPC sports leagues have grappled on whether or not to limit the scope of modifications that a frame can carry. Proponents of unrestricted modification argue that the leagues were founded as a contest of engineering as opposed to the skills of individual players, while opponents have countered that such a practice would turn the games into a 'pay-to-win' affair, with entire tournaments decided by the team with the deepest purse. Presently, both schools of thought can be seen across various sports leagues, with each take different views on the matter.<br />
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IPCs themselves are more often spectators than players of sports, as both the physical advantage that many frames enjoy over a human, alongside the regular wear-and-tear that constant physical activity exerts on a frame render casual games an occasionally costly proposition. On the other hand, professional IPC athletes proudly wear their legacy of being on the cutting edge of chassis design, with many of them often sporting bespoke modifications that allow them to gain the edge on the field. This trend shows no sign of slowing down, even after Konyanger independence, although with IPCs seeking contracts with teams to finance their sports-grade frames as opposed to being commissioned outright by the teams themselves. <br />
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Despite repeated efforts by government ministries to create a new national sport to serve as another symbol of Konyang, ranging from football in freshwater swamps to boat racing among mariners, and more, none of these attempts have managed to surpass the universal acclaim and popularity of old Earth sports. One controversial sport has remained, however: botfighting. Sparring between IPCs is often broadcasted even off-planet and maintains a loyal following among Konyangers who see it as a natural extension of various martial arts and combat sports present throughout the Spur. The sport has a checkered past with several failed attempts in the parliament to ban the practice, citing that IPC contestants were forced to fight before general emancipation. Although safeguards were present even during the initial days of botfighting in order to comply with self-preservation directives, regulations passed since then have made the present sport far safer than its inception, much to the derision of older fans.<br />
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===Baseball===<br />
Baseball is unofficially regarded as the national sport of the Republic of Konyang, having been brought to the planet by its founding colonists and remained a popular sport to date. The Konyang League, divided into the major and minor leagues, is the main baseball league in the planet, with organic and synthetic sections for both. Organic Konyangers still play in Solarian baseball leagues, even after secession, but synthetic teams play in the Coalition’s leagues. Both organic and synthetic Konyangers are regarded as some of the best baseball players in the modern Spur, and a sufficiently talented player can find themselves playing abroad and earning a significant amount of money for doing so.<br />
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'''Konyang Major League'''<br />
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The Konyanger Major League is dominated by teams from the planet’s major cities such as Suwon and New Hong Kong, with the most prominent players of these teams becoming celebrities in their own right. The major teams of Konyang bring in billions of credits and are vital parts of their cities, with local notables vying to own one and city officials fighting to have stadiums built in their districts. Organized crime groups, such as 5-Cheung and the Benevolent Guild, are known to take their cuts too, “helping” businesses secure contracts for the teams and their stadiums, then funneling their cut of the money back into their illicit operations.<br />
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One of the only synthetic-exclusive sports leagues in the modern Spur, the Konyang Major League (synthetic) falls under a unique series of rules. Synthetics must, by league rules, be free and have at least Konyang residency, and most members come from Konyang. Synthetics are allowed to self-modify but must, per league rules, not use “performance enhancing” augments such as ballistic computers or leg actuators. One exception is for after-market heat-sinks used by shells, who would otherwise suffer from heat circulation issues rendering them unable to play. These rules were recently tested by Suwon Sea Bandit team captain Iseul-52, a shell IPC who replaced her legs with Zeng-Hu frame equivalents. After a two month investigation it was deemed an illegal modification. Teams can place any synthetic into any position, but lighter frames — baselines, Zeng-Hu frames, and so on — tend to be outfielders, with heavier units such as industrials serving as pitchers and basemen. Shells are often the “face” of the teams, serving as team captains and floating between the other rules. Only the Boryeong Shelfers go against this shells-as-captains trend, with G2 industrial Myung “Sonny” Sun serving as their team captain.<br />
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'''Konyang Major League Teams'''<br />
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'''Suwon Sea Bandits'''<br />
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Based on Konyang’s capital and colored black, gold, and white, the Sea Bandits a recently ascendant team after a long slump of losses during the mid-25th century, having recently won the 2465 Konyang Series and the coveted Jeweler Cup for both the organic and synthetic leagues — a first for any team. Most Bandits are locals from Suwon, with few originating from other cities and only one — human team shortstop William “Wok” Fitzroy, originally from Callisto — coming from off-world, and this policy of local recruitment has kept the Bandits a favorite in Suwon even during their long period of losses. The team has built more goodwill by holding regular charity games after the rampancy crisis, donating the profits to Suwon’s recovery. Their name comes from Konyang’s sea bandits — pirates that operate out of its remote islands — and has long refused to change its name for any reason. The Bandits winning the ‘66 Series has been viewed by many in Konyang’s capital as a sign their city is bouncing back after the rampancy crisis, and has made them more popular in their hometown than ever. Their mascot is Moon the Marauder, a stylized pirate who claims to be the most infamous bandit on Konyang and is in constant search of more treasure. Moon has a rivalry with the Cloudbursts’ mascot, Lieutenant Commander Yamada, and has sworn to evade justice for as long as possible. Whether Moon escapes Yamada depends on if the Sea Bandits beat the Cloudbursts. If they do, the Marauder gets away from his pursuer — but Yamada always manages to pick up the trail before the next season.<br />
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The human Bandits are led by team captain Kwang-Sun “Cap’n K” Nae. Captain Nae is a larger-than-life figure who typically attends press conferences and events wearing a costume pirate hat taken from the team’s mascot and speaking in what the team manager identifies as, “a piratical accent.” His co-captain for the synthetic team is Iseul-52, a shell IPCand pitcher who recently drew controversy by replacing her legs with Zeng-Hu frame equivalents. Eventually deemed an illegal modification by the league, her comments that she’d do, “anything to win,” make her a controversial figure now — even with her original legs reinstalled. Iseul has a very public rivalry with Shelfers team captain Myung “Sonny” Sun, having pitched a perfect no hitter against the G2 in 2466 and brought his Jeweler Cup dreams to an end. Captains Nae and Iseul have a good working relationship and often appear in joint promotions, with both appearing in several government-produced PSAs during and after the rampancy crisis.<br />
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'''Aoyama Roboticists'''<br />
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Arguably the best-funded team in the league, the Aoyama Roboticists’ colors are gold and green: the same as their sponsors, Einstein Engines. The Roboticists have a larger number of off-world fans than any other team on Konyang and are frequently watched by Einstein employees, who view them as “their team.” Well-funded and well-trained, most human Roboticists come from outside Aoyama and even offworld, with their synthetic team requiring a prospective member to demonstrate they were made by Einstein — making them the only majority-shell team in the league. As a result, while the human Roboticists have consistently been excellent — making it all the way to the Konyang Series game in ‘65 only to lose to the Sea Bandits — the synthetic Roboticists have consistently struggled compared to other teams made of a more diverse synthetic roster. They are sometimes painted as a villain by other teams, and the Roboticists play into these rivalries — often their away games draw more tickets to the home team’s stadium than any other game. Their mascot is a stylized Albert Einstein wearing an Einstein Engines labcoat.<br />
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The human Roboticists are led by the only non-Konyanger captain in the major league, Mercuryian Floyd “Howie” Howell. Captain Howell is a competent, if somewhat boring, man who is a gifted coordinator. Both of his parents, and all of his siblings, work for Einstein, and he often throws the ceremonial first pitch of Einstein-run employee team-building baseball games in Aoyama. His organic counterpart is Richard the Magnificent, a dashing-looking shell designed to resemble a Callistean known for talking in an outlandish Earther accent. Richard is popular despite his team’s lack of success and often makes appearances on talk shows and podcasts. His likeness has even been featured as a background character in Believe!~ (In the Time), and Richard himself is rumored to lend his voice to unvoiced animals in the show, instead making noises. He has never officially confirmed this.<br />
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'''Boryeong Shelfers'''<br />
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Colored green, white, and red, the Boryeong Shelfers are a mid-ranked team currently stuck in something of a rut in the major leagues, having last won the Jeweler Cup in 2442 — over twenty years ago! Shelfers — like the animal they’re named after — come from across Konyang, but most originate in the greater Boryeong Prefecture and its major cities, such as New Busan. The Shelfers are owned by Go-Go Gwok (formerly known as Gwok-0783), the CEO of Gwok Group, and the team is featured in many Gwok promotions, with players appearing in everything from radio ads to TV commercials to packaging. Gwok herself has injected significant funding into the team and is rumored to be working on ensuring they capture the Jeweler Cup by 2470 — something that has been growing more realistic, with the Shelfers consistently finishing higher in the Major Leagues each year. Their mascot is a Shelfer wearing a team jersey who they claimed grew legs (and arms) out of his sheer desire to see the team play.<br />
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The human Shelfers are captained by Hee-Young “Hehe” Ryuk, a daughter of two Boryeong hydroponics workers who’s become a local hero in the Prefecture for her down-to-earth nature and refusal to accept contracts for any other team. Her nickname comes from Ryuk’s habit of pranking her team and others, such as an incident where she replaced random practice balls with identical copies filled with confetti and designed to break open after hitting a bat. Ryuk has a well-known dislike of Gamblers human captain Jin-Sang Gwak, a man she views as a criminal first and a player second. Standing opposite her on the synthetic Shelfers is Captain Myung “Sonny” Sun, a G2 industrial and former Gwok Corp worker. Sonny is one of the tallest players in the League and often regarded as its best power hitter, having scored more homeruns than any other synthetic player. Captain Iseul of the Sea Bandits has a very public rivalry with Sonny, having struck the G2 out several times — most recently in 2466, when she brought the Shelfers’ Jeweler Cup dreams to an end. Sonny, for his part, is one of the few players to hit a homer on one of Iseul’s pitches every time during a game, last doing so in 2465. Breaking from the rivalry in a show of support after the rampancy crisis, Manny signed and sold the bat he used to hit every one of Iseul’s pitches at auction and donated the proceeds to Suwon’s recovery fund.<br />
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'''Ganzaodeng Gamblers'''<br />
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Colored purple, black, and white, the Ganzaodeng Gamblers call back to their city’s days as a boomtown during the robotics boom, when gambling halls were on almost every corner. Gamblers come from across Konyang, and the human team has a significant minority of players from New Hai Phong. Fittingly for their name, their performance has been wildly inconsistent: over the past ten years they’ve won the Jeweler Cup (in 2452), placed lowest overall (2455), and came in second overall twice (2449, 2553). Fans of the team refer to this as “Gambler odds” and Ganzaodeng has many legal and semi-legal sports betting businesses — many associated with organized crime — based around betting how well the Gamblers will place this season. Hai Phongese organized crime has long been rumored to be involved in betting around the Gamblers, but the National Police have never discovered formal evidence of such. The mascot of the Gamblers is a deck of cards wearing the team’s jersey called the Ganzaodeng Ace as the deck is said to contain just aces.<br />
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The human Gamblers are captained by Jin-Sang Gwak, one of the league’s best shortstops and a man long accused of being involved in game fixing — though nothing has ever been proven. Gwak maintains a close relationship with New Hai Phong, where he plays during the offseason, and is viewed by many on the team as a bridge between its Konyanger and Haiphongese players. His counterpart on the synthetic team is Youngsoo “Grenadier” Baek, a KAF veteran known for his aggressive pitching style who missed the 2465 season due to volunteering for military service during the rampancy crisis. Captains Gwak and Baek, despite their similar surnames, do not get along. Where Gwak is lackadaisical and flirts with corruption, Baek is disciplined — even draconian — and held as incorruptible. What will happen as the captains continue to be at odds is any player’s guess, but it certainly does benefit Ganzaodeng’s betting industry.<br />
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'''New Hong Kong Cloudbursts'''<br />
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Colored red, orange, and grey, the Cloudbursts represent New Hong Kong and derive their name from the city’s infamously poor weather. The performance divide between the human and synthetic teams is stark: while the human cloudbursts are regarded as the worst team in the major leagues, having never won a Jeweler Cup, the synthetic Cloudbursts are regarded as one of the best teams in their league, having most recently won the cup in 2465 in a close game against the Sea Bandits. This division has been called, by some sports reporters, the result of New Hong Kong having a majority synthetic population, and the prefecture’s bad weather making it difficult to draw players in for its human team. The mascot of the Cloudbursts is Lieutenant Commander Yamada, a stylized Konyang Aerospace Forces — formerly Solarian Navy — officer who has a rivalry with the Sea Bandits’ Moon the Marauder, with Yanada publicly swearing he’ll chase down the brigand until the end of time. Whether Yamada catches Moon depends on if the Cloudbursts win their game against the Sea Bandits — but the Marauder always manages to slip from his prison before the next season starts.<br />
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The beleaguered human Cloudbursts are led by Captain Min-Jee “Minty” Seong, the oldest team captain in the league and a veteran pitcher. The longest-serving member of the Cloudbursts, Seong is expected to retire by the end of the decade — leaving her team in even more uncertain circumstances. As a captain she has done what she can to make the Cloudbursts into a winning team, but has yet to win the Jeweler Cup — the highest she’s had them place is third overall. Her counterpart on the synthetic team is Jinjing “Bandit” Wu, a catcher and former Solarian Navy IPC who became a Konyanger when her destroyer chose to stay and fight for Konyang rather than defecting to a warlord state. Widely known as a patriotic Konyanger, Wu is one of the few players to wear a hachimaki on the field. Off of it, she has long been an advocate for the rights of IPC refugees fleeing unrest or oppression elsewhere in the Spur.<br />
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'''Ushishir Yōkai'''<br />
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Colored white, purple, and red, the Ushishir Yōkai (stylized Yokai abroad) hail from Konyang’s least populated prefecture but punch well above their population, having recently won the hunan Jeweler Cup in 2461 and the synthetic Jeweler Cup in 2463 — the first team to ever win the series. Both the human and synthetic Yõkai are considered to be competent and competitive teams but had a bad year in the ‘66 season, with an early season injury having put team captain Aki Miura out of commission and the synthetic team losing to the Shelfers in the 9th inning in one of the closest games of the year. As a small city in a small prefecture, the Yōkai’s human team recruits many players from across the Coalition and maintains only a slim majority of Konyangers. The Yōkai’s foreign players have never attracted the ire of their counterparts in the Roboticists, potentially due to most coming from the Coalition and the team’s lack of a corporate sponsor — instead being owned and operated by local businessman Takeshi Furukawa, CEO of Furukawa Footwear — a midlevel corporation whose products can be found in stores across Konyang.<br />
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The human Yōkai are captained by Aki “Mickey” Miura, freshly returned from a nearly career-ending injury to his leg in the ‘66 series. Captain Miura is a gregarious and friendly man known for his distinctive pencil mustache and slightly grey hair, being only a year younger than Cloudbursts captain Min-Jee Seong. A power hitter, he is famous for his ability to call a shot and make it a homerun — and holds the current record for homers in the major league. Miura has appeared in anti-crime TV and radio spots with Shelfers captain Hee-Young Ryuk, and advocates for sports as an alternative to gang allegiance for youth — efforts that have led to the National Police giving him the honorary rank of inspector. His counterpart on the synthetic team is Captain Kazuki “Kaz” Oshita, a pitcher and the first synthetic to lead his team to victory in the major leagues. Captain Oshita is known to visit a shrine before every game he plays in to “debug” himself before he throws the first pitch, and was censured by the Konyang League for spreading false information on Chirper about purity seals preventing rampancy infection during the crisis. His comments nearly caused a brawl between the Yōkai and Sea Bandits during the ‘66 game between the teams — informally known as the “Rampancy Game” due to taking place right after the crisis’ end.<br />
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{{Navbox Konyang}}</div>The Strykerhttps://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=Konyang&diff=35787Konyang2025-05-05T05:53:04Z<p>The Stryker: </p>
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==Overview==<br />
Originally established in 2305 as a Solarian Alliance Outer Ring planet, Konyang is presently one of the more distant outposts under the Coalition of Colonies after its independence in '''2462'''. Konyang’s capital city Suwon, the largest settlement on the planet, is built upon a natural formation that defines most of Konyang's geography: islands with large interior mountains that feature lush, but soaking wet, coastal jungle regions. Konyang was initially a relatively average Outer Ring settlement intended to export water, before the discovery of mysterious, deactivated drones in 2407 led to a robotics boom occuring on the planet that lasted well into the 2450s. The Konyang of today is a planet renowned for its robotics industry, though some of its initial luster has faded in the years following its boom. Water, however, remains a key industry - the planet has a remarkably low salination level, meaning that essentially all of its water is drinkable. Konyang Solarian Common, or Konyang Common, is the most used language on the planet inside and outside of major population centers. Due to its proximity to the Coalition of Colonies planets, Coalition member planets often import water from Konyang. In major cities and universities, Tradeband can be found being spoken, though it remains rare. Speakers of the language are generally from off-planet, moving to Konyang during its robotics boom. Konyang almost completely lacks valuable minerals due to intensive mining efforts carried out by drones—whose source remains unknown—hundreds of years before it was colonized.<br />
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'''Because of the ethnic make-up of Konyang's original settlers and assimilation of immigrants into the native population during the first AI boom, human characters born on Konyang will have names and appearances consistent with the people of China, the Korean Peninsula, and Japanese Islands. Only native Konyangers or Konyang-made IPCs may select the Konyanger accent. This is enforceable by server moderators and admins.'''<br />
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[[File:Konyang flag.png| The Konyanger flag was adopted in 2462, having unofficially been used by pro-autonomy circles long before the declaration of independence. The traditional taijitu represents peace and harmony as the highest values of the new state, with the color blue representing the waterways the planet is known for and yellow, their aim of prosperity. The white background represents Konyang's purity.<br />
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==History==<br />
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===Conception and Planning | 2200s - 2299===<br />
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When the United Nations proposed and eventually enforced the creation of the Alliance of Sovereign Solarian Nations, China, Korea and Japan were once more forced to band together to compete with the world for influence inside the newly found institution. Rivals such as the European Union, the Soviet Union, the Commonwealth and the United States were first in line to claim hegemonic roles, their space programs forming the core of Solarian colonization of the Inner, Middle and Outer rings over the centuries, populating them with their own peoples and sparking an unofficial race for prestige land grabs, one which the Department of Colonization was more than happy to let unfold, resulting in the extremely fast expansion of Humanity into the Orion Spur. While regional powers such as India and the Mediterranean countries began creating their own colonies on Gadpathur and Assunzione, the East Asian trio were relegated to secondary roles of supplying technology, labor and capital without any actual representation in the stars, a situation problematic for some and resented by many in the “sovereign” governments.<br />
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It was thus decided to present a plan to Solarian functionaries for a colony spearheaded by China and supported heavily by Korea and Japan, aimed at restoring the pride of the three “cousin-nations” and their position in the Alliance. Intense negotiations and technical planning amounted to years of disagreements over the name, location and allocation of responsibilities between the partners, as well as the presence of China’s Einstein Engines megacorporation, which offered to finance a great portion of the initial effort. Soon however, the advent of the Second Great Depression and the following Interstellar War in the mid-late 2200’s saw a bankrupt Alliance put a halt to any colonization projects, resulting in the plans being shelved. The war took a great toll on the core Solarian worlds, including Earth and its nations which were called to provide manpower, funds and materiel for the Solarian Navy. Federal China’s economy tanked completely under the pressure, relying on IMF bailouts and stays of payment on the salaries of its public sector, with pensionaries and students being most severely hit, resulting in massive social upheaval which would have long lasting consequences for the country’s financial hegemony in the post-war region.<br />
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As peace and relative stability returned, the Alliance found a newly independent, sizable and embittered Coalition of Colonies rival its claims in the Galactic East, calling for the presence of military garrisons and naval stations to protect the border. It was at this time that colonization projects were beginning to reemerge, with the Pacific Pact racing once more to submit a viable plan for a colony that would represent East Asia. A fatigued China could no longer bear the incredible costs it aspired to as the leader of the colonial venture before the war, giving significant leeway to the other two partners and largely retreating behind its megacorporation, Einstein Engines, which was still willing to back the endeavor. An aggressive Korean delegation largely dictated terms, giving birth to the “Konyang Project”, named after the Konyang University in which the colonial undertaking was revealed and presented to the public in 2299.<br />
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===Early Colonial Period | 2304 - 2400s===<br />
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[[File:solyang_flag.png|thumb|right|The flag of Konyang under Alliance administration.]]<br />
The plan envisioned five convoys for the establishment of four primary settlements on a strategically placed planet selected by the Solarian Navy for the support of local naval operations against any threats from the Frontier Alliance. The targeted planet was revealed to be a lush world first discovered in 2278 by a long-range scouting probe, dominated by water and possessing a breathable atmosphere, placing it in a prime position to sustain Human civilization. The quickly named “Haneunim” solar system possessed a few more bodies of secondary importance, and the first convoy was scheduled to launch on the 10th of March 2304, from the Wenchang spaceport in South China, to meet the long-distance freighters in orbit of Luna that would carry the first 5,000 colonists to Konyang. The ethnic mix-up of the colonists were equally distributed amongst the three nationalities, with all being volunteers and 646 of them under the employ of Einstein Engines.<br />
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It took the warp-propelled convoy one year to reach its destination, traversing light years of Solarian vastness before meeting the Navy squadron which would escort them to the planet, with touchdown being made on September 8th, 2305. Konyang was covered in jungles and great mountain ranges, requiring great labor from the men and women of the expedition to create the first settlement, under the direction of officers from the Department of Colonization. Two months later, Unity Station would receive the first signal passed along by the Navy, originating from beacon Number 22890/223, Designation ‘SUWON’. The foundations had been laid. In the following decades, all five convoys would come to form the basis of the “Konyang Territory”, a colony directly controlled by the Alliance and the Solarian Navy as the base of the 58th Fleet. Boosted by its status as a naval base, the abundance of freshwater and with the backing of Einstein, all three cities were realized; Suwon and Boryeong, New Hong Kong, and Aoyama, each at the start holding ethnic majorities of Koreans, Chinese and Japanese respectively.<br />
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===The Robotics Boom | 2407 - 2430s===<br />
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Despite the acceptable climate and near unlimited freshwater, the colonial government soon realized an alarming lack of mineral resources, forcing a complete reliance on external trade and supplies from the Navy for any and all industrial goods and even basic construction materials, a reality which had to be corrected as fast as possible. A planet-wide scanning expedition was organized, while “patriotic aid” was fervently being fundraised in China, Japan and Korea for nearly a whole century to cope with the colonists' increasing demands. This led to a landmark moment in the history of Konyang, when on the 21st of April 2404, mining teams dug into a collapsed tunnel outside the vicinity of Aoyama, discovering a defunct mining drone, crushed by tonnes of rock and soil. The chassis appeared broken and old, though its very presence implied the exploitation of the planet by a different civilization.<br />
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The device was hurried back in secrecy to a panel of dumbfounded colonial officials, who deemed that their corporate partners would be more suited in tracking down its origin. As such, after a quick formality bid behind closed doors, the Alliance sold off its odd piece of government property to Einstein Engines whose scientists saw it as a curious case worth pursuing. Month after month, the Terraneus Diagnostics laboratory in Aoyama kept receiving bits and pieces from similar drones recovered from abandoned, centuries-old mineshafts, culminating in the 2406 discovery of a sealed vault containing a great number of intact mining drones. The severity of this discovery was immediately apparent to the scientists. Words were had with the governor of Konyang by the local Einstein Engines representative, and it was decided to keep the drones a very closely-guarded secret - with only select Terraneus and government officials even being aware of their existence at all, let alone what was being done with them.<br />
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The Terraneus research team worked feverishly, though in secret, for months upon months. Staff were quietly shipped in from offworld in order to not alert outside observers, and the team continued to work upwards of eighty hour weeks in order to crack the drones. In mid-2407, they achieved one of the most remarkable breakthroughs in recent scientific memory by cracking the AI algorithms of the drones. Information of this moved rapidly from the local Einstein Engines office up the corporate chain and moved equally rapidly up the government's chain from provincial office to Sol itself. The information spread like wildfire, and humanity now had the secret of AI despite not truly knowing from where or who these machines came from. This was little more than a footnote to the Nralakk Federation - to them, these AI were crude and hardly approached the machines that had driven their civilization to ruin.<br />
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The robotics boom of Konyang caused a variety of benefits and harms to the previously marginal outer ring planet. The economy ballooned massively, as did its standard of living and industries. Konyang moved from a rural backwater that exported food and water to a high-tech planet that still exported basic goods, but primarily focused upon robotics. Megacorporations flocked to the planet: Einstein Engines, already present through Terraneus, rapidly secured dominance over the planet; Hephaestus Industries struggled with Einstein dominated competition before selling its factories over to local government control in 2427; and Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals, despite its skrell benefactors, purchased rights to examine the planet's biosphere from Einstein. The fact that their prosthetic limbs were originally designed on this planet has been stated to be a "happy coincidence" by its board. Due to the mass arrival of corporations, jobs were readily available - the planet was booming.<br />
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A massive migration wave of Einstein employees and their families to Aoyama made the city wrangle the spot of first in importance from the nominal capital of Suwon, to the point where the expatriate scientific community and their dependents outnumbered the local Japanese original colonists. The city quickly became known to Humanity as “Point Verdant”, the name assigned to the Terraneus Diagnostics laboratory in Aoyama, while the parent countries on Earth invested billions to capitalize on the success of their colonial project, to lift the planet into a modern world and reap the public relations benefits of their colony achieving a breakthrough in artificial intelligence.<br />
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The rapid expansion of Konyang's industries and cities had overtaxed the limited bureaucracy on the planet to the breaking point, and architects were in short supply. Urban planning on Konyang is estimated to be some of the worst in Alliance space outside of New Hai Phong as a result, with cities such as Point Verdant often having haphazard roads running through them and districts smashed together with no apparent rhyme or reason - a legacy of corporate jockeying for areas of interest, and the municipal corruption that came with it. There are countryside facilities originally utilized for drone research and retrieval that have, in recent years, fallen into disuse and disarray. Such facilities often dot the mountains and foothills of Konyang, slowly being overtaken by nature - sometimes with unfortunate results when these facilities have been improperly stripped of dangerous materials. The environment also suffered in areas where drones were found - jungles were cut or burnt away by corporations in order to get at the precious drones below, prefab buildings were orbitally dropped and erected, and landing zones were cut into the landscape itself.<br />
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The stormy tidal waves so infamous for tormenting the early colonists were tamed through the building of sea walls, a comprehensive road network linked the remote villages with the urban centers, and the city of Ganzaodeng was raised from the rocky desert. The Konyanger conglomerate PACHROM would mark the rise of the first native Chaebols, building shipyards, dams, hydroelectric plants and the first space fleet capable of ferrying enormous capacities of water across interstellar systems.<br />
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===The Positronic Integration | 2410s===<br />
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Soon enough, IPCs entered production on the planet, making Konyang one of the first places to embrace the positronic revolution. The limited resources saw higher prices, lessening the availability of domestically produced frames. Furthermore, the still rudimentary waterproofing technologies meant that IPCs could not work for long hours without shelter, ensuring that human jobs would remain safe from automation. When in the rest of Sol IPCs were produced en-masse for labor, Konyanger IPCs were more integrated in white-collar employment and indoors service-related work. Meanwhile, a growing media culture based on animation combined with the Konyanger recycle-friendly attitude, giving newer generations a fresh look on positronic intelligence, one that valued them as people rather than a disposable resource. The lack of widespread automation never brought the anti-synthetic sentiment so common in the rest of Sol, and IPCs in time became a unique cultural phenomenon in the colony’s urban centers.<br />
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Solarian laws governing the relations between IPCs and mankind were nominally enforced on Konyang, barring synthetics from gaining their own freedom, a fact which remained a thorn between the more liberal, younger Konyangers and the older generations. Einstein Engines allied with the Solarian governorship to press for the continuing status of Konyang as a colony, preventing elections and thus any liberal political influence from threatening the company’s grip on its synthetic workforce. This however, did not prevent Konyanger society to further integrate IPCs, even if the concept of universal citizenship for all synthetics was still far from publicly accepted. Aoyama was most receptive to the positronics, as a center of research and culture, with IPCs welcomed in people’s houses, treated like family and celebrated in festivals and even religious ceremonies. Suwon sentiment remained ambivalent, though many Solarian officials and naval officers expressed most severe concerns, in many cases pressing for crackdowns and questioning the morals of Konyanger citizens. The denizens of New Hong Kong and Ganzaodeng on the other hand, were most unhappy, with the powerful Chinese factory and shipyard labor unions remaining vocally opposed to IPC rights in the workplace, owing to their ties with the wider Solarian unions.<br />
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The profound effects of the emergence of this positronic culture were soon felt across the planet, change being heralded through a wave of demonstrations in mid to late 2412. High school and university students in Aoyama took to the streets to call for synthetic rights, in one of the few instances of pro-IPC disturbances on Solarian soil. In particular, the students called for the immediate emancipation of owned synthetics, marching from the main First Avenue down to the Governor's House and being joined by crowds of people and IPCs alike. The Aoyama Constabulary alongside Terraneus security forces were ordered to put a swift end to the march, resulting in the first major incident since the founding of the colony. Over 400 student injuries were recorded, the crowds responding with rocks and branches to the authorities’ tear gas and water cannons. 247 arrests were made that day, sparking additional outrage in the student movement as the ringleaders were tried as adults and given lengthy prison sentences. Smaller incidents were also noted in Suwon and Boryeong, marking 2412 as a year of upheaval and social change, laying the foundations for full IPC citizenship.<br />
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===Late Colonial Period | 2410s - 2440s===<br />
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As Konyang left behind the troubled ’10s and social peace returned through decrees permitting local city authorities to afford certain permissions for IPCs. This followed the final robotics' boom peak in the 2430s, seeing the planet’s GDP growth reach new levels. The colony’s industrial potential skyrocketed, with hundreds of hydroelectric dams, sea walls and shipyards creating thousands of new jobs in New Hong Kong, the new industrial core of Konyang. Labour relations shifted dramatically, as the new Hephaestus-pioneered industrial chassis enabled IPCs to work in the most difficult of conditions, sidelining and driving off the all powerful Gwongfu labor unions, with human employees forced into the urban centers and Ganzaodeng, contributing to a skyrocketing of the local IPC population in the prefecture.<br />
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Suwon saw a significant rise in business activity with the outside world, emboldening private ventures to the neighboring Frontier Alliance, bringing in massive profits from moss and entertainment exports. The animation industry reached new heights, with hundreds of new studios producing pioneering and high quality work, including classics like “One Day in My Life” and “Tomonomimi”, two of the most highly acclaimed works of media in recent Solarian memory. The entertainment sector brought new life to the Konyanger tourism industry as well, with more and more people rediscovering the distant hidden gem tucked deep in the fringes of the Alliance. The Suwon Stock Exchange was listed for the first time in the Chicago Financial Review, Sol’s most coveted investment periodical, as “Upcoming”, leading to billions of credits flowing in the country from abroad.<br />
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New chaebol conglomerates emerged, replacing even Einstein products with widely successful “Local, Cheaper and Better” campaigns. While Gwok Foods was making headlines in 2439 as the most successful Konyanger “IPC-inspired” exporter by yearly gross tonnage, the Ayame Motor Corporation created the first “completely Konyanger” 2-seat automobile designed for the cramped roads of Suwon and Point Verdant, becoming an instant hit. The Boryeong based Mujigae Publishing brought comics back into the youth’s hands, and Konymation had expanded to control cinemas, movie production studios, theme parks and restaurant chains in its ever expanding media empire.<br />
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===Independence and Present Day | 2462 - Present===<br />
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The Mars Violet Dawn catastrophe of 2462 signaled an era of widespread uncertainty and energy insecurity for the entirety of the Sol Alliance, with the Spur-wide phoron crisis exacerbating the situation for the Alliance’s Middle and especially Outer Ring colonies. A Konyanger recession in the late 2450s had already stretched the colonial government thin, with riots over the cost of living and unemployment in New Hong Kong and Suwon making national news for years on end. As the shaken corporations entered discussions on how they would survive the ever increasing phoron costs, it was made clear to everyone that the Alliance could not, and would not fund the refitting of the corporate fleets with the new Suzuki-Zhang Hammer Drive engine, threatening the complete cutoff of Konyang from outer space should the local Bluespace gate fail. Only a few Einstein vessels and the 58th Fleet stationed on the planet remained as the only reliable link between Konyang and the Spur.<br />
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The shortage soon hit the domestic market, leading to dangerous price increases for even the most essential of supplies. The average Konyanger saw their purchasing power plummet, as salaries remained stagnant in the face of a decreasing supply. The colonial Governor Hyun Kyung-Ho, turned to the only emergency option left, Earth. It was not the first time that Patriotic Aid was raised in China, Korea and Japan, though this time it proved most underwhelming. As the call for help fell on ears of men that could not even help their own economies, the trophy colony had to be abandoned to its own devices, with many in the East Asian public accusing Konyangers of greed and forgetting them in their apogee of financial success. With this last link to the past cut off, the question and possibility of independence soon started circling.<br />
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There was no time for serious debate however, with the Alliance being plunged into rebellion and collapse. On November 12, the 58th Fleet hastily departed Konyang, declaring a state of emergency in the system and abandoning the colonial government to its fate. Only elements of the Solarian Army and the Constabularies remained to maintain order, themselves being composed almost entirely of local Konyanger enlisted. The situation immediately turned into unrest, as public sentiment against the ineptitude of the Alliance boiled over into the streets. Massive student protests saw the storming of public buildings and central plazas in every major town and city, demanding a sharp reduction to the cost of living, IPC emancipation and a barring of the 58th Fleet from returning. Government reaction was mild, limited to the prevention of damages and protection of private property. Hyun Kyung-Ho was otherwise sympathetic to the students’ cause, sparking outrage within groups of Alliance-minded Army officers and Einstein corporate elites, who sought to prevent any secession of Konyang.<br />
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Thus, on November 15 2462, elements of the Army garrison under Lieutenant General Jiang Hongbing mobilized against the wishes of the Governor, taking up key positions in Suwon and Point Verdant. The mutinous 8th Sappers infiltrated the historic SUWON beacon telecommunications complex, preparing the country for a silent coup and preventing any long range communications with Sol. Jiang Hongbing, inspired by actions of mutinous admirals, took it upon himself to restore Konyang to the Alliance by marching the Army into the streets. While some of the formations under his command were willing to participate, the vast majority refused to bear arms against the Konyanger Governor or the student movements. In the following day, an internal power struggle saw many officers confined to their quarters, with Army hardliners being arrested, chased off or even assaulted in their own barracks as a loyalist armored brigade blocked access to the Governor’s House, preventing Hongbing’s men from touching Hyun Kyung-Ho.<br />
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With the coup’s inglorious end visible, the Governor’s staff were racing into negotiations with diplomatic officers from Coalition of Colonies still in the country for an express accession into the Coalition, following Konyang’s independence. Jiang Hongbing’s associates surrendered, himself fleeing into the thick jungles of Boryeong Prefecture, declaring a patriotic struggle in the Alliance’s name before soon being betrayed and confined at the 58th base’s Brig. On November 24 2462, telecommunications were restored, and Konyanger independence was broadcast to the world. The country’s preliminary accession into the Coalition was soon after announced, turning a new leaf in Konyang’s history. While the news was received with muted reaction from a confused Alliance government with more pressing matters to handle, the secession of Konyang was a huge blow to the three parent countries. After Governor Hyun Kyung-Ho assembled the nation’s intellectuals, economic and political figures, it was decided that he would remain in place as independent Konyang’s first Governor to organize free elections and set up the foundations for a democratic state.<br />
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Now, as a free Konyang comes out to the world stage, strong government initiative has seen its large synthetic factories nationalized, rapidly introducing legislation to establish the relationship with Einstein Engines. While they still are the dominating megacorporation on the planet, Einstein has lost most of its heavy industry, though still retaining the important research facilities around the vaults, as well as a good portion of software and positronic brain creation.<br />
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==Location and Environment==<br />
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===The Haneunim System===<br />
The Haneunim System, centered around the yellow star it is named for, Haneunim, contains four major celestial bodies, including the planet of Konyang. The whole system bears evidence of ancient mining operations, missing an asteroid belt to separate the inner and outer system with what few rocks remain being mostly picked clean of minerals.<br />
* '''Huozhu'''<br />
The innermost planet is known as Huozhu and remains practically inaccessible due to the scorching heat of Haneunim. Unmanned drones have indicated that the planet, which is visible to the naked eye on Konyang, is greatly lacking in any mineral wealth and has no atmosphere to speak of.<br />
* '''Hwanung'''<br />
The second planet from Haneunim, Hwanung, is an insignificant dwarf planet believed to have maintained a thin arid atmosphere before most of its mass was artificially stripped away. While relatively close to Konyang and far cooler than Huozhu, observation and a handful of expeditions revealed that most of the planet's crust had been artificially stripped away, exposing its solid, icy mantle. Konyanger exogeologists continue to survey the planet from time to time and PACHROM has obtained a permit to mine ice in order to meet their quotas to Orepit.<br />
* '''Qixi'''<br />
The third planet in the System is Konyang, accompanied by its lifeless moon of Qixi. Qixi is noteworthy for housing a KASF base and shipyard, the Konyanger military's largest off-planet possession; while more prestigious than working aboard one of the KASF's orbital stations, being posted here is considered boring by some. Some in the government have discussed plans to build more shipping hubs on the moon, akin to Biesel's own Valkyrie, but these talks have largely remained academic due to adequacy of Konyang's existing spaceport facilities.<br />
* '''Shiranui'''<br />
Shiranui, a ringed gas giant colored blue thanks to its methane composition, is the outermost planet from Haneunim. Prior to the discovery of phoron, private companies operated over three dozen methane-harvesting facilities in orbit around Shiranui. That number has dwindled down to just thirteen in the past few decades; the remaining workers, their families having often worked in the industry for many years, are usually bitter towards NanoTrasen. The Aerospace Forces keep a number of unmanned satellites around the gas giant in order to better monitor pirate and refugee activity.<br />
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An asteroid belt, far to the outskirts and composed mostly of ice, forms a ring around the entire system, although this remains largely unexploited by both the Konyanger government and local corporations. It is instead the stomping ground of both refugees fleeing the Sol Wildlands, and the pirates that seek to prey on them.<br />
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===Geography===<br />
[[File:Konyang_map_sat.png|A geographic map of Konyang, showcasing the planet's different biomes. |thumb|800px]]<br />
Primarily a tropical world smaller than Earth, Konyang boasts a mean radius of 5,111 kilometers. Freshwater oceans cover upwards of 88% of the planet’s surface. These oceans also grant Konyang its signature green color when viewed from orbit, in no small part thanks to the abundant presence of moss in the planet’s waterways. The planet’s continents are classified by its larger landmasses and island chains, although given the tides, the planet remains studded with small island chains and archipelagos that ebb and flow with the season. Two small ice caps exist on Konyang where the planet experiences a miniscule amount of snowfall and cold climates. The Konyanger terrain is principally mountainous, with large ranges covering vast areas of the planet’s landmasses. The tallest peak belongs to Mount Sansin, the highest mountain standing at a record 13.890 meters above sea level, its base forming an island of its own. Flanking the mountains are usually lush jungles, present in almost every island and continent in varying densities. This means that settlements have to be located in clearings adjacent to the coastline, on terrain with relatively even elevation. The largest and most dense jungle is located in Bukupo, an island in the heart of the Boryeong Prefecture. The largest landmass on the planet is Cheomseongtang, home of the Suwon prefecture and the nation’s capital. Other notable landmasses are the Oshima islands, hosting the largest mountain ranges, as well as the Yu islands, home of the only biome that could be described as a desert. New Hokkaido is the largest northernmost territory, renowned for its biodiversity and frosty tundra due to its proximity to the planet’s pole, as well as a unique lack of jungles. It is administered directly by the Government of Konyang, being the site of many scientific expeditions and military exercises, only boasting a population of a few hundred people.<br />
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===Environment===<br />
[[File:Konyang.png|An image of Konyang, displaying mossy oceans and algae-covered water as the face of the planet. |thumb]]<br />
Konyang features a highly atypical environment for a habitable planet: it is entirely freshwater. The surface of the planet is primarily oceans, with estimates placing upwards of 88% of the planet as covered in water. What is not under the sea are the islands of Konyang, where the vast majority of its population lives. These islands follow a general pattern: a small coastal area and a large mountain range ringing the island. The freshwater oceans of Konyang feature a remarkable diverse biosphere, and Konyang underwater flora, such as freshwater moss, is often used in the planet's native dishes and exported offworld, as far afield as Sol and Tau Ceti. Konyang is defined by two seasons: wet, lasting nine months, and dry, lasting three months.<br />
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The coastal regions of Konyang represent the smallest regions of its islands, but contain upwards of 90% of the planet's population. Often called the "coastal jungles" of Konyang, these areas are extremely wet - flooding is an issue in many areas, though the bulk of populated and urban areas are protected by extensive flood protection infrastructure, primarily lengthy complexes of walls. Coastal areas feature a wealth of plant and animal life, both of which have been put under stress by the rapid expansion of Konyang's cities.<br />
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Although Konyang’s coastal waters are often tinted green from moss, even more so than its oceans, harvesting and cleanup efforts along the coasts of the main and important islands have resulted in some sections of the planet appearing blue. These areas are often exploited for settlements and as tourist destinations for their scenic looks, while dedicated seaweed and algae farms dot the planet, providing an income for local villages and traditional producers. The most famous Konyanger food exporter, Go-Go Gwok!, has the largest involvement in the moss and seaweed industry.<br />
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The inland mountain ranges of Konyang can be up to several kilometers in height in some areas, with smaller foothills featuring some rare settlements leading up to them. These ranges, which are mostly devoid of any valuable minerals, are the reason for Konyang's jungles - they form an effective rain shadow. Some mountains have what is assumed to be collapsed mines in them, deactivated drones scattered throughout.<br />
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A phenomenon unique to the easternmost Yu islands of the Ganzaodeng prefecture, inland deserts are created due to the rain shadow caused by the surrounding mountain ranges. These are the least populated areas of the planet. Extraordinarily dry, little grows or lives in these environments. Rare Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals facilities can be found in this area, taking advantage of the isolation and relatively sterile environment that the inland deserts offer.<br />
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Lastly, the oceans of Konyang are regularly stormy, the large waves being harnessed for their energy in electricity production at numerous such outposts, scattered throughout the unpopulated islets in the farthest and most secluded areas.<br />
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===Flora and Fauna===<br />
Wildlife on Konyang is a peculiar mix of its original environment and the thousands of invasive species introduced by Human colonization. Species introduced in the initial colonization of the planet include huge herbivores and peaceful, if ecologically destructive, wildlife. Additionally, the large oceans are host to an uncountable number of species of fish, crustaceans and aquatic molluscs, with many being unique to their region of origin. Flora on Konyang is among its most famed aspects, spearheaded by the mossy shores and overgrowth which covers the vast majority of its visible terrain. All plant life which survives on Konyang must survive the extremely damp environment, and as such either thrives in the water, or is capable of moving away from it. Konyang's waters are famously covered in green moss and seaweed, giving it its signature color when viewed from orbit.<br />
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Some examples of unique flora and fauna are:<br />
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'''Shelfers'''<br />
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In the marsh and lowlands of Konyang's algae coasts resides an invasive species of large omnivores known as '''Shelfers.''' These are gluttonous moss-feasting beasts, with a distinct six-legged and bloated appearance. They are excellent swimmers, owed to webbed joints and a wedge shaped, slick head. From this, it uses a set of large protruding teeth to scrape moss and undersea growths. This creature is endangered, and displayed as a national animal thanks to its unique appearance. Originally a danger to unprepared colonization, these gained a reputation for its tendency to attack colonists.<br />
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These were first encountered by colonists who had shipped wildlife to and from Arusha, where escaped subjects managed to reproduce- over the years becoming a cultural icon due to their miraculous beneficial place they have in Konyang's ecosystem.<br />
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'''Konyanger Jeweler Cockatoo'''<br />
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Known for its affinity to decorate its nesting grounds with surface-level pearls and gems of all sorts is an opportunistic carnivore, the '''Jeweler Cockatoo.''' This large avian is an offshoot of the Earth parrot, bred originally to “liven the landscape” of Konyang’s dreary inner mountainous lands. Eventually, with the assistance of high-level genetic modification, they grew to giant proportions whilst maintaining the health and lifestyle of a standard - ''if highly dangerous'' - parrot. <br />
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Where small patches of forest and barrens clash, these birds thrive and craft beautiful roosts in the relative safety of open fields. In these fields, diminutive predators avoid the large avian’s glare (or don’t, and are frequently preyed upon.) The Jeweler Cockatoo possesses two sharp talons on one digit of each of its feet, and a short - but unbelievably sharp beak, refined further by its tendency to dig. The wingspan of these birds can grow up to fifteen feet.<br />
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The Jeweler Cockatoo is the national bird of Konyang, with many stylized imagery depicting the bird in some shape or form.<br />
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'''Glittering Konyang Moss'''<br />
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Found in vast plains of coastal territories in excess is the overflowing, yet precious resource of '''Konyang moss.''' One of its primary exports, this barely-tapped commodity retains a huge capacity to feed Konyang’s already sturdy ecosystem, and the billions which reside upon it, and more to export. The evolutionary process which grew this mystical, shimmering moss is a mystery, however its luster and fields of green it generates has a wonderful impact on sustaining Konyang’s moist, overgrown and greenery-rich habitat. <br />
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Konyang moss is pivotal to its moving industries, and even after the robotics boom, it remains a stable source of incoming development for the since-burgeoning planet. The moss’ nutritional properties have been highly studied in recent decades. Its rapid pace of growth is exclusive to Konyang’s ecological circumstances, with everything from subterranean heat, to the algae present in its beautiful green seas factoring in.<br />
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==Economy==<br />
While young, the nation of Konyang boasts a powerful regional economy built upon decades of trade with both the Alliance and various Coalition partners. A developed country, Konyang manages to surpass its near total lack of ore with robust exports of foodstuff and energy, a strong shipping industry and a powerful robotics sector.<br />
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===Raw Materials===<br />
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[[File:Konyang dam.png|thumb|Dams and sea walls are a common sight on Konyang, used to protect cities and population centres from floods and tsunamis, as well as to exploit the violent waves for electricity.]]<br />
Konyang's freshwater oceans were perhaps the largest boon to the starting colonists, and continues to play a substantial role behind the planet's exports. Fishing provides for a large aspect of the domestic economy, with millions of fishing boats and trawlers scouring the shores and oceans for all kinds of fish, crustaceans and other aquatic creatures, of which a complete list doesn't exist. Such is the biodiversity in Konyang's waters, that each region has its own fish markets which serve clients all over the planet and the Spur. Besides fishing, Konyang's biggest aquatic produce in terms of volume belongs to its enormous seaweed and moss harvesting industries. Entire ships are purpose-built for collecting wild greenery which floats on the high seas and the bays of Konyang, bringing in billions in offworld exports and domestic sales. The harvesting of moss is not exclusive to the sea and the aquatic farms either, as many edible varieties are collected inland, both in the planet's jungles and mountain ranges. Konyanger moss is Spur-renowned thanks to powerful marketing campaigns and the spread of the planet's cuisine.<br />
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With tremendously stormy wet seasons lasting most of the year, it is no surprise that Konyanger corporations have attempted and managed to harness the energy of the wind, waves and waters of the planet. Electricity is generated through a network of dams, hydroelectric plants, wave power stations and tidal power stations, all dotted across the vast shores and oceans of Konyang. The electricity produced is then either stored in super capacitors, or is directly wired inland through thick underwater cables, catering to the needs of virtually every power grid on the globe. Much of it is also transported on board space freighters lined with rows of large batteries, ready to make the journey to Alliance and Coalition worlds as part of the lucrative electricity export industry.<br />
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Lastly, Konyang excells in the export of water and timber. The continent-spanning untouched jungles provide an excellent source of wood for foreign markets as well as domestic construction, of which there is very heavy use in lieu of metal structures. The freshwater is also extremely easy to chemically filter, skipping any desalination process before being bottled or shipped as-is on board of one of many of Konyang's water barges; large hollow space vessels with tankers and pools for water storage.<br />
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===Maritime Shipping===<br />
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Surface shipping is another one of the main forces behind Konyang's domestic market economy, and an inseparable part of the nation's maritime culture. The docks and shipyards of New Hong Kong are the beating heart of the sector, which provides employment to more than 20% of the entire planet's population. Entire towns were formed and dedicated to housing the laborers and their families close to the coast, and many islands subsist entirely off of seamen's salaries and work at nearby electricity stations. Surface shipping, while slower, is a lot more economical for planetary moving of goods across the continents and islands of Konyang, being preferred to airlifting or orbital shuttling. Aside from the creation of jobs and the transportation of goods, Konyang's shipping industry produces excellent sailors who can rival those of planets such as Europa, many of whom eventually transition to space.<br />
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===Robotics and Services===<br />
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Ever since the robotics boom, Konyang has become a major player in the export and development of IPCs and everything surrounding them. Each year, the most cutting edge technologies catered to the improvement of the life of synthetics are released by Konyanger software companies, often to critical acclaim. This is because of the the substantial positronic population, free and eager to spend on such innovations that allow them to experience the world in a more human-like fashion. When it comes to the export of IPCs, Einstein Engines remains the prime manufacturer of chassis and positronic brains, which are shipped abroad without being activated. The practice, while putting Konyang on the map as one of the big regional producers of synthetics, is a hotly contested area between deeply entrenched corporate interests and an increasingly politically aware IPC populace. Non-positronic robotics are a separate, but once significant part of the economy, with Konyang having hoeld high places in the spur leaderboards for the making of robots, mechs, pAIs and automated systems. This sector however, took a major hit as the robotics boom slowly deflated, leaving behind abandoned industrial complexes and derelict factories.<br />
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The nation's service sector has to be one of the biggest ones, contributing a sizeable portion of the country's Gross Domestic Product. Many of the companies listed on the Suwon Stock Exchange are everything from financial consultation firms, to insurance agencies, housed in every majpr city's financial district. Skyscrapers and office complexes in downtown Suwon, Point Verdant and New Hong Kong are a daily reminder of the office life millions of Konyangers live, and many parents dream of their child being able to one day find employment in a top law firm or such. While mostly concentrated in the domestic market, many of these companies have expanded their services abroad, building a reputation of Konyanger reliability and impeccable work.<br />
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===Konyanger Corporations===<br />
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In terms of the traditional megacorporations, the undoubted hegemon remains Einstein Engines, entrenched in the planet's life since the beginning of Konyang's colonization. The megacorporation owns a number of subsidiaries on the planet in many different sectors, most notably, Terraneus Diagnostics, which regularly bankrolls and invests in government initiatives in exchange for their continuous presence. It retains the original research facilities and control over the vaults, even if IPC production and exports are now handled by the Konyang Robotics Corporation, a public company in which Einstein controls a 49% stake. The Terraneus facilities on the planet mainly handle shell research and positronic brain production for export to the Coalition, while they occasionally butt heads with Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals in the realm of IPC research. Zeng-Hu has the second-largest megacorporate presence, mainly in biosphere research and sales of pharmaceuticals. Despite this, local conglomerates generally dominate the country’s financial sector, commanding the government’s cooperation and good graces in order to keep a stable economy. Upon achieving independence, Konyang has managed to maintain a strong presence of homegrown corporations in the fields of agriculture, media, energy and consumer goods.<br />
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'''PACHROM'''<br />
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A chemical and engineering corporation, PACHROM builds, maintains and manages eighty percent of all private dams, hydroelectric plants and seawalls on Konyang, as well as engaging in the field of chemicals and plastics production. Headed by Park Moon-soo, the business mogul is vying for influence with the government as indispensable to the nation’s energy output and defence against floods and natural disasters, making the “Pachrom Parks” one of the richest and most powerful business dynasties on the planet. Headquartered in central Suwon, the bulk of PACHROM’s operations are located in diasporic, uninhabited islands in the middle of the world’s oceans, where hundreds of organic and synthetic workmen toil daily to run the water powered electricity plants in extremely dangerous conditions.<br />
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The company’s notorious reputation for neglecting the safety of its employees and the environmental disregard for waste disposal from its plastics factories has been a big stain the Parks have struggled to wash off. While their ties to both the Alliance administration and the Konyang government have proven instrumental in their ability to dodge damning legal action, demonstrations of public outcry are a common feature in and around the street opposite the PACHROM office complex. To counter this, public relations campaigns are a constant focus, with tens of millions being spent in portraying them in a positive light. Charities are a large part of the Park family’s social presence, sponsoring public works and offering scholarships mainly in the Boryeong and New Hong Kong prefectures, where the majority of employees originate.<br />
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Often finding itself without funds from Unity Station, the colonial administration would commission PACHROM in the form of lucrative contracts for the construction of dams and power stations, allowing the utilisation of synthetics and IPC for the dangerous labour required. Due to society’s favourable opinion towards positronic intelligence, the multitude of cases of IPC fatalities would be swept under the rug with government assistance, creating a culture of tolerance towards lacklustre safety features and general disregard. Today, PACHROM’s future remains uncertain as the newly independent state of Konyang wishes tends to distance itself from its shaky past, a fact indicated by the recent awarding of the Kaneyama nuclear plant to the public company GON-ENE.<br />
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'''Gwok Group'''<br />
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Founded in the early 2410s with the name Hyeonsang Foods, the precursor to today’s multinational food conglomerate was the first attempt at commercialising Konyang’s seaweed and moss both for export and internal consumption. Initially finding limited success due to an overly competitive local market and foreign consumers' reluctance to the Konyanger novelty, the company's defining moment arrived during the robotics boom, launching them from mediocrity into the billion credit business stage.<br />
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As Einstein Engines staff poured into Point Verdant, Hyeonsang secured a contract from the megacorporation's local branch for providing meals and miscellaneous catering to workers and research staff. The once alienated Einstein employees would soon come around, praising the brand for its flavourful seasoning and convenience, eventually spreading the word to Einstein facilities and back home. By the late 40s, Hyeonsang was on the track of significant financial success, having secured a large foothold in the foreign dominated central districts of Point Verdant.<br />
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Rebranding into the more consumer friendly “Gwok” name in 2452, the company’s reputation abroad led to the opening of regional branches in the Solarian middle and core worlds, generating an increasingly massive amount of income, used for an aggressive takeover of the local Konyanger market. By buying off competitors, monopolising the moss and seaweed industry and introducing new marketing, Gwok’s domestic success was soon guaranteed as the primary supplier of supermarkets. In 2454 the IPC Gwok-0783, until then a senior executive and the face of the company as the main influencer of the rebrand, assumed direct control as CEO of the conglomerate thus becoming the first IPC in charge of a billion credit corporation in Sol space. The following years would see the consolidation of all affiliated assets and filial companies under an umbrella Gwok Group, topping the charts and establishing a farming, food and restaurant chain empire.<br />
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'''Konymation'''<br />
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Konymation represents the peak of the Konyanger animated media scene, being by far the most successful and most well known studio in the country, with a Spur-wide fame. It arose in the early days of the robotics boom, creating a resurgency of animations for both children and adults. While the industry was almost non-existent and cheap Solarian cartoons were the norm, a group of inspired artists came together to animate and direct the first feature-length production from Konyang, using native voice actors and a brand new artstyle of their own. The result was "One Day in my Life", a slice of life film following the daily routine of an IPC secretary in a human-dominated world, becoming an instant hit with both domestic and foreign audiences. Since then, Konymation rose to become the largest studio of quality animations, creating films and series for all ages and of all genres. Such was the success, that any animated pieces from Konyang have passed into the public consciousness simply as "Konymations", referred to as such in both the planet and abroad. Since their foundation, the studio has developed into a media conglomerate, buying out holoscreen channels, online platforms, news networks and more.<br />
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'''Mujigae Publishing'''<br />
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The biggest publishing house, Mujigae is to the comic book industry what Konymation is to animation. Having created thousands of interesting and touching comic series, Mujigae is credited with bringing paper back into the hands of millions of Konyangers, in an age where digital platforms have become the default for nearly everything in life. Many of Mujigae's works find great demand abroad as well as at home, with the company being known for their efforts to constantly seek out and recruit new artists with fresh ideas. A plethora of published series often find themselves being adapted into the holoscreen in lucrative partnerships with Konymation, as well as the other way around. Additionally, Mujigae's philanthropic work cannot go unmentioned; millions of credits have found their way to various charities on Konyang, primarily those regarding the children, the money drawn from art festivals and comicons that are hosted annually, often with the participation of the Ministry of Culture. <br />
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'''Konyang Robotics Corporation'''<br />
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The Konyang Robotics Corporation, or KRC as is more commonly known, is the country's largest government-controlled company centered around the manufacture, maintenance and welfare of the nation's positronic population. Borrowing heavily from Einstein know-how and infrastructure, it originated from the nationalization of Einstein and Terraneus IPC factories, with the majority of their employees swapping over to a government payroll. Einstein Engines controls 49% of the shares of the company, lending it tremendous behind-the-scenes influence on Konyang's synthetic population.<br />
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The primary function of the KRC is the production, storage and activation of IPC citizens. A very politically and socially sensitive topic, great care is placed by the government through the Ministry of Health and Positronic Affairs to meticulously calculate and order the amount of yearly activations, so as to maintain the Human-IPC ratio and meet the demands of the job market. To that effect, the KRC also acts as a sort of "school" for the newly activated IPC citizens, with special orientation camps where synthetics are taught about Konyanger society before released to the world.<br />
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Furthermore, the KRC acts as the primary health provider for Konyanger IPCs, with clinics and hospitals situated in every town and city, as well as strategically placed in certain villages in the countryside. Thousands of roboticists, engineers and software technicians are employed by the KRC to act as the equivalents of surgeons, physicians, nurses and paramedics for the IPC population, who are afforded universal healthcare through the KRC. Appointment times are dependent on location and the capacity of the clinic or hospital, with many in more remote areas having to wait months for limb replacements and other, more heavy duty needs that cannot be met by their local KRC center.<br />
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'''GON-ENE'''<br />
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GON-ENE is a newly formed, state-controlled energy utilities company, created following the announcement of the Kaneyama Nuclear Power Plant. Perceived as a direct competitor to PACHROM, GON-ENE has been planned to expand into hydroelectric and wave power, giving the government a greater control of the nation's power grid and cutting back reliance on privately-owned sector, though complete autarky is off the table for at least many decades.<br />
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==Government==<br />
''Main Article: [[Konyanger Government and Politics#Government|Konyanger Government]]''<br />
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Konyang is organized as a unitary semi-parliamentary republic headed by a President, the former colonial governor Hyun Kyung-Ho being elected to the position after independence. The Prime Minister is elected by the citizenry every four years, and is the leader of the governing party in the Parliament of Konyang. The current Prime Minister is Myeong Myung-Dae.<br />
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Planetary politics are found on both a national and prefectural level, with every party running in local and national elections. Polarization is fairly limited, the vast majority of Konyangers rejecting the extreme views put forward by radical political movements in the country that tend to be marginalized. IPC politicians do exist and are found in every major party, though most can be seen sitting with the National Party of Konyang.<br />
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===Military===<br />
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[[File:Marine.png|thumb|right|An IPC Konyanger Naval Infantryman in full gear.]]<br />
Konyang’s military, also known as the Konyang Armed Forces, was first formed shortly after the colony’s independence from personnel of the former Solarian garrison. As a result, it carries a lot of the traditions of the Solarian Armed Forces. Bolstered by conscription laws requiring both organic and synthetic citizens one year of mandatory service, the KAF possesses Army, Navy and Aerospace branches. IPCs are actively recruited and accepted into the military, forming both their own and deployed in mixed units. This segregation is justified by the government as based solely on the differentiating capabilities, logistical needs and skills between man and machine.<br />
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That claim does hold true to an extent, with IPCs taking a more active role in special forces formations, dealing with operations requiring levels of precision and focus that artificial intelligence can easily provide. A famous example is the army’s Mechatronic Corps, an elite unit utilising large, leftover battle mechs retrofitted for a pair of pilots. Such a force is unique in the Coalition, and is often used abroad in operations under broader CoC military command. Mixed infantry units of conscripts do exist, fielded in jungle patrol tasks or assigned garrison duty.<br />
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Notably for a 25th century military, the Navy maintains a very large aquatic force which it uses to patrol the vast oceans of the planet. Regularly described as more of a coast guard than a military arm, it is more geared for domestic policing than combat, consisting mostly of ships acting as launching points for many smaller, coast guard type vessels that patrol the vast expanse of the planet’s waterways and launch military aircraft. Nevertheless, it provides important services with its multiple telecommunication, radar and island outposts, providing crucial meteorological information for everyday seafaring and flood prevention on a planet where storms and extreme weather are the norm.<br />
<br />
The Konyang Aerospace Forces perform both atmospheric and orbital operations with their doctrine clearly influenced by former Solarian officers within their ranks. Their fleet consist of obsolete vessels donated by Coalition planets, partially brought up to a modern standard by the planet’s technology and manufacturing sector. In 2465, the KASF’s main tasks include protecting the system from pirates and policing the large influx of refugees from the Human Wildlands, regularly pushing them to other planets within the Coalition as per Konyang’s strict migration laws.<br />
<br />
</div></div><br />
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
===National Police===<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
[[File:Konyanger Police Ranks.png|thumb|In order to organize the National Police and smooth cooperation between prefectures, a unified rank structure was adopted shortly after its formation.]]<br />
Despite its federal nature, the main law enforcement agency on the planet is the National Police, formed after Konyang’s independence from the merging of a number of local and specialised agencies under the then Solarian authority. One major change since then has been the introduction of synthetic officers in all positions and ranks, while also creating special divisions suited best for them. Police gear remains rather antiquated for the era, the force still using old Solarian equipment and stocks from the colonial garrison, meaning that much of the tactics and thinking remain unchanged. Considered tame by Alliance standards, the National Police places an emphasis on preventative policing, building rapport with local communities, and relying on a sense of civic duty from the populace to perform its duties. Despite this, the National Police has nonetheless received criticism for occasional incidents of corruption and brutality, mostly against synthetic citizens. This is more common in remote departments and conservative prefectures, where the sudden inclusiveness of synthetic officers with equal pay and opportunities is seen as a threat. Such incidents aside, government efforts for the modernisation of the National Police are ongoing.<br />
<br />
The police is subject to the Ministry of Public Safety in Suwon and is organised at the national level, with local departments answering to the assigned hierarchy in their prefecture. Special divisions are deployed to deal with various policing duties, their size ranging from a whole new branch to Special Robotics detachments specialising in detainment of volatile synthetic suspects. The largest of these subdivisions and arguably the most important, the Coast Guard is the maritime arm of the National Police, operating a fleet of shore and sea patrol vessels in their mission to enforce the law at the huge array of islands and in Konyang’s waters. As the planet is surrounded by oceans, the Coast Guard has proven itself essential to the battle against smuggling and piracy while also assuming search and rescue duties during flooding, tsunamis and other catastrophes. The National Police has also gained Coalition-wide acclaim for its Special Robotics Division - a task force known for its expertise in detaining IPC without causing permanent damage.<br />
</div></div><br />
<br />
==Culture==<br />
''Main article: [[Konyanger_Culture_and_Society|Konyanger Culture]]''<br />
<br />
Konyang’s culture has been shaped by its East Asian Earther heritage, unique status as a colony with little to no resources, and as the birthplace of positronics. Konyanger society is often described as closed-off, with many unspoken social norms that vary from prefecture to prefecture. Key social norms that are shared in Konyang’s culture are Harmony, Reciprocity, and Face. Often derided as “meekness”, Harmony refers to enforcing unity and conformity within society. The specific manifestations vary from prefecture to prefecture, but in general, individuals who disrupt a sense of peace can face social ostracization. For instance, explicit disagreement such as using the word “no” is considered impolite, and a non-answer is often far more acceptable. Harmony also refers to a person’s social role; respect should be shown to people of a higher status, usually along traditional lines such as age, profession, and experience.<br />
<br />
===Media===<br />
''Main article: [[Konyanger_Culture_and_Society#Media|Media]]''<br />
<br />
Public media in Konyang is a powerful industry, and as broad as it may seem, it is very tightly knit. Aside from galactic-wide reruns and broadcasts of other nation’s shows, little seems to stand out - except the audio broadcast and illustrated artistic avenues. These two are well-refined artistic giants compared to other forms of entertainment on the planet.<br />
<br />
A huge portion of the planet’s political views and very “personality” are channeled through its larger studios, where many are found enthused to spread its culture galaxy-wide.<br />
<br />
===Cuisine===<br />
The primary diet of Konyangers consists of moss, seaweed and fish, with farms and pastures on land being rare due to the thick jungle. Konyang's moss is either harvested in the wild, grown in "natural" hydrofarms, or grown synthetically in bioplants. The moss itself is said to change its taste depending on the environment in which it is grown, and natural moss from the coasts around Konyang's islands is highly prized. Exports of moss and seaweed are a very lucrative business, held primarily by the galaxy-famous Go-Go Gwok! brand. Many workers, however, must make do with hydrofarm moss at best, and synthetic substitutes at worst. Konyang's fish - quite diverse, due to its freshwater environments - are also often consumed on the planet, with many being exported as luxury food as far afield as Venus and Tau Ceti. More conventional but water-intensive crops such as rice and other tropical fruits are also grown to a certain extent but are considered a rarity.<br />
<br />
The planet is also home to a thriving beverages industry, with local varieties of algae providing the basis of a light but thick alcoholic drink colloquially known as “Nong jiu” domestically and abroad. The wide selection of produce on the planet however means more traditional drinks are produced, typically drawing from their Earther roots and commonly based on rice. Some of these drinks are exported by local businesses such as Go-Go Gwok! while Zeng-Hu has wrestled to control some of these brands in an attempt to stop them from competing with their own lineups.<br />
<br />
===Synthetic Cuisine===<br />
Synthetic-unique cuisine is an unusual case in the Spur, but not for Konyang. Here, robots utilize gustatorial implants to - if inefficiently - consume, or at least “taste” food regularly. Indeed, there is an entire market for synthfood where robots can enjoy their own form of taste, texture and uniquely perceptive flavor for foods. Mostly, synthfood is described as a thick slime, one with varying additives for color. Texture is mostly a simulated process within gustatorial implants, given they are not always present on tongues alone - meaning that the actual texture of these synthfoods remains the same gooey substance.<br />
<br />
''One can achieve a similar substance to these synthfoods mechanically by grinding certain foods into paste, or utilizing candy machines with your choice of ingredients and output.''<br />
<br />
==Organized Crime==<br />
<br />
=====Benevolent Guild=====<br />
The Benevolent Guild is a criminal organisation operating primarily within the decrepit, dark shadows of New Hong Kong. Originating as a mutual aid society for low income and forced penal colonists shipped into New Hong Kong by the Alliance government, it developed into a ruthless crime syndicate with strong ties to the local lower class community. From the start, the tightly knit communal and familial ties have played an important role in preserving the gang’s power and shielding them from police action. Only in recent years has any meaningful progress been made, the allocation of governmental resources and the increasingly violent and profit-oriented tactics of the Guild having alienated much of the younger generation, chipping away at the once widely popular support.<br />
<br />
Starting with extortion and loan sharking, the Benevolent Guild rapidly expanded into gambling, drugs and violent crime such as kidnapping both in New Hong Kong and in New Kowloon. It is not uncommon for synthetics that find themselves victims of the group’s loan shark tactics to be ‘collected’ as collateral damage and subsequently carted off to whichever corner of the Orion Spur where their new owners await them usually at a far cheaper rate than elsewhere. One of the few institutions on Konyang refusing to admit synthetics owing to a deeply conservative and spiritually esoteric internal ideology, a pragmatist outlook often compels them to deal with and even cooperate with IPC politicians, police and rival gangs. Connections with criminal organisations in the wider Spur have been confirmed to exist, as various crime syndicates in Xanu, New Hai Phong and Luna are known to be in connection with the Benevolent Guild.<br />
<br />
=====5-Cheung=====<br />
Emerging as one of the strongest IPC/organic street gangs of Suwon, the 5-Cheung numbers in the thousands of members in the cities of the Suwon and Point Verdant prefectures. The organisation’s origin as a loose collective of delinquents and fringe elements has since developed into a nationwide crime family with a powerful hierarchy fielding biker gangs and thugs to enforce their tight grip on the underworld. With a black repertoire of gambling, extortion, money laundering and narcotics, the 5-Cheung is considered a main rival to the Benevolent Guild of New Hong Kong, the two frequently coming to blows in a series of wars and uneasy truces over control of turf and general competition.<br />
<br />
An open secret in the country’s political sphere has the 5-Cheung profit lucratively from corruption in the highest levels of government and police. During the Solarian era, prominent politicians employed protection from the 5-Cheung, soliciting their services in voter swaying, intimidation of opposition members and violent disruption of rallies and demonstrators. This has given the gang a justified reputation for being the political soldiers of ruling dynasties and representing the authorities in the underworld and on the street in exchange for immunity from prosecution. Following Konyang’s independence, the reformed National Police retained a virtually unchanged staff while the nation’s same prominent political families, now unshackled from Alliance oversight, enjoy even more freedom. As such, it is safe to say that 5-Cheung’s entrenched position will continue to remain untouched aside from the occasional drug bust and arrest of low level members.<br />
<br />
=====Sea Bandits=====<br />
Although both the previous colonial administration and the nascent Konyanger Armed Forces and Coast Guard have tried to stamp out piracy, the sheer expanse of the planet means that groups of what the authorities call “sea bandits” continue to infest the waters and orbit of Konyang. Ranging from small motor boats launched from fishing villages with nothing more than an antique rifle, to retrofitted probes salvaged from the refugee waves pouring into the system, piracy is one of the most pressing social and security issues faced by the newly formed nation.<br />
<br />
Individual pirate groups usually number no greater than twenty people but the Sea Bandits as a whole operate as a wider criminal network inclusive of individuals and crews from all over the planet. By coordinating their activities and intelligence through encrypted sites, the organisation manages to both evade and stay one step ahead of the authorities. Most of their activities take the form of kidnapping, armed robbery of craft and hijacking unescorted seafarers, while admittedly avoiding the busiest and well guarded sealanes and locations. The most audacious raid by the Sea Bandits to date involved the boarding and ransoming of a cruise ship by the use of an unregistered freighter. Although only circumstantial evidence has been uncovered, Golden Deep Zaibatsu have also been accused of working with Sea Bandit groups by launching probes full of narcotics, to be recovered by the pirates.<br />
<br />
==Synthetics on Konyang==<br />
As the origin of the integrated positronic chassis now found throughout the Orion Spur, Konyang has always had a quite unique relationship with IPCs, the IPC population constituting a staggering 34% of the total population. While IPCs throughout the Sol Alliance are often looked upon as little more than property, tools, or novelties depending upon their frame those found upon Konyang possessed a notably greater degree of autonomy and freedom before the planet’s secession from the rest of the Alliance, achieving full and unconditional freedom afterwards. Legal ownership of synthetics within the borders of the Republic does not exist, the Emancipation Act constituting one of the first acts passed by Parliament. IPCs can work wherever they like, live however they please within the confines of the law, and partake in politics by voting or being elected. As such, foreigners are repeatedly cautioned to not bring any privately held IPCs with them, for they cannot be forced to return unwillingly.<br />
<br />
Ordinary Konyangers, as a result of the planet’s liberal outlook on positronics, possess a more positive view of synthetics than other humans in the Orion Spur - particularly those from the Sol Alliance and its former territories. The majority of people on Konyang view IPCs as amicable colleagues and neighbours, with many friendships between man and machine being established. Closer bonds such as marriage are also legalised and not unheard of, though not without outcries from the more conservative spectrum. Many scholars theorize that this is due to the prevalence of IPCs in daily life on Konyang, seamlessly blending into society, in addition to the pride many citizens have in their planet being the origin of the modern positronic. Konyang’s integration of IPCs stands with some degree of contrast to Biesel’s, with the large synthetic ghetto of District 14 segregating many synthetics from the average citizen of the Republic of Biesel.<br />
<br />
With Konyang’s independence, IPCs share full legal equality with all organic citizens of the planet. This concession was given, both as an acknowledgement and acceptance of the fact that synthetics have become part of everyday life in the colony and are generally accepted by its inhabitants. Unlike the Republic of Biesel, IPCs in Konyang seek to assimilate into human society, with IPCs being given the choice to adopt a second, “human name” before receiving citizenship. A human name can range from an entirely new name, to adding a first or last name of any kind to their existing designation.<br />
<br />
Many positronics can be found within the economy of Konyang with perhaps the most famous (or infamous) one being Gwok-0783 (now Kim Gwok-0783, under post-independence IPC naming conventions), the owner and operator of her very own food conglomerate in the form of Go-Go Gwok! Authentic Konyanger Moss. As Go-Go Gwok! is technically an interstellar corporation, Gwok-0783 herself relied on a series of legal loopholes centered around Konyang’s former IPC laws to maintain control of the company when Konyang was still in the Sol Alliance. Examples such as Gwok, with her control of an inter-planetary corporation, are fairly rare. However, many positronics have made a successful name for themselves as small business owners and corporate workers on Konyang.<br />
[[File:Konyang vault.png|thumb|A mysterious vault upon Konyang's surface, unearthed and built around with monitoring infrastructure.]]<br />
Due to the system’s bluespace gate, the [[Synthetic_Factions#The_Golden_Deep|Golden Deep]] has made great strides in establishing embassies and industry on Konyang. Now a contender with the Konyang Robotics Corporation, Golden Deep merchants have both been providing aid and competition to the businesses on Konyang after the Silicon Nightmares crisis. Konyang is now both a major business landmark for the Golden Deep, as well as a middle point to the more lucrative markets of Tau Ceti and the Jewel Worlds. The money and business brought into the system by these synthetic traders has - arguably - been a major contributor to Konyang’s more liberal laws and regulations regarding IPCs. Konyang, before its independence, was one of the few systems under Solarian control in which IPCs could own and operate a business. <br />
<br />
The synthetic population in Konyang is regulated by the government. A set number of positronics are assembled each year under contract at Terraneus Diagnostics facilities in Point Verdant with the prospect of being granted citizenship after a 3 month life orientation period. The determined number is set annually by Parliament, backed up by the yearly census and statistics, with production increasing or decreasing depending on the number of human birth ratios, positronic shutdowns, and other factors. Expenses are met both through government funds and private donations, though debate on the matter is rarely heated as the amount of new brains numbers usually in the hundreds; a tiny fraction of positronics produced and exported in total. IPCs and positronics constructed for the purpose of selling them to a different country, are not covered by such regulations and are not given citizenship.<br />
<br />
There are further regulations in robotics construction in Konyang. Any activated positronic brain can qualify under the Emancipation Act. Exceptions to the law exist for manufacturing and research, with Point Verdant in particular activating positronic brains for the sake of testing shells before shipping them off-world. The law has also sparked development in other fields of mechatronics, with Konyang beginning to lead the way in circuit-based robotics.<br />
<br />
Despite gains for its IPC citizens, other positronic intelligences have not been so lucky. Although some brains have been repurposed as AI coordinators for cities; with no way to transition to humanoid frames, bound intelligences have been granted freedom, but often take contracts with corporations that result in a return to the old status quo, all for the sake of staving off destruction due to a lack of maintenance.<br />
<br />
===Konyanger Augmentation of IPCs===<br />
<br />
Augmentation on Konyang is a fascinating subject, where the presence of so many IPCs has brought success in modifying the Positronic body and mind. Famed explorations into the sectors of IPC modification include "sensory evolution," where synthetics' senses being amplified or dulled in extremes according to desire.<br />
<br />
Primary among the delves into this evolution of the senses is the New Dawn Augmentation Movement. This is a Konyanger organization based on the improvement of the IPC lifestyle via modifying chassis, funded peculiarly by Terraneus Diagnostics. The movement is oddly organized as a non-profit, going against the corporation’s established modus operandi. This, coupled with the tantalizing opportunity to freely modify an IPC's form with donated funds leads to public skepticism of the augment movement’s motivations.<br />
<br />
Still, the true size of the movement to augment and improve Konyang's IPC population is extraordinary in comparison to other stellar nations. Roughly 22% of Konyang IPCs have some form of corporate-funded augmentation to enhance themselves.<br />
[[File:Konyang augment1.png|thumb|A Konyanger design, the Scorpion Lobe is an augment which manipulates the perception of time for synthetics for better or worse.]]<br />
* '''SENSO-EVO/Scorpion Lobe'''<br />
A miraculous creation of Konyang's technological advancement, SENSO-EVO is the term aptly handed to Sensory Evolution's foremost product. This is the Scorpion Lobe, a similarly shaped attachment to the rear of a positronic brain which adjusts the rate at which the synthetic perceives time literally. The implications of this are seen as either a blessing or a curse — sometimes even utilized as a way to reduce problematic behavior in positronics.<br />
<br />
These implants are commercialized to protect the integrity of brains which adopt extremely high speed tasks, or extremely tedious and slow ones, with a perception that best suits their given utility.<br />
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A double edged sword by nature, these are often removed by free positronic chassis due to their almost torturous nature. Some may find their lives flashing hours into moments, whilst others may find daily grinds to be impossibly long ordeals. Unfortunately, removing these implants is not always a safe procedure, sometimes damaging a brain or rendering the problem worse.<br />
<br />
These were first manufactured by Hephaestus Industries on instrumental Konyang research facilities, and later acquired by Einstein Engines personnel in the same month - debates over the design’s origin have been ongoing since 2449.<br />
<br />
===Recreational Software===<br />
<br />
In the IPC community of Konyang, the culture of acceptance and freedom has always invited the curiosity of synthetics to imitate and follow human pastimes and habits. This in turn included activities such as smoking, synthetic flavours and eventually, recreational drugs. Due to the nature of the positronic, the only way to recreate such sensations is through software targeting and modifying specific programming in the brain. At first, this dangerous commodity was provided by amateur programmers using experimental and highly volatile code known as “overloaders”, leading to often irreparable and lethal damage to an IPC’s systems. The results of the few initial successes, however, proved promising enough for the idea to be seriously considered by upcoming Konyanger tech companies and business-oriented software engineers, leading to the first reliable and somewhat safe overloaders in the mid to late 2450s. <br />
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Popular awareness of recreational software became widespread upon its release as a commercial product, Konyang being the first world to introduce a marketable version of it. Usually sold inside a single-use stick drive, their circulation is approved by safety boards and is considered legal for responsible consumption, much like alcohol for organics, relying on the consumer for mitigation and avoidance of repeated use. Legal overloaders today can be found mainly in synthetic-centred retailers found around the major cities, their relatively limited availability and high price setting them as a luxury IPC item. Its effects include a wide range of results, from simulating the sensations of a light buzz to a short bout of excitement and joy, aimed at enhancing the experience at celebrations, parties and get-togethers.<br />
<br />
However, where there is demand, there must be supply, and the fact that demand spiked as these new products launched paved the way to a large underground market of cheap, unsafe and highly unpredictable overloaders sold both by dealers and unlicensed street vendors of dubious reputation. An illegal overloader epidemic hitting the cities of Suwon and Boryeong in late 2459, led to intensified police crackdowns and government campaigns against illicit overloaders, labelling them as malware and the IPC equivalent of dangerous drugs. Virtually unrecognisable from a legitimate overloader without the seal, side effects are many times more powerful and addicting, appealing to adventurous synthetics and the financially insecure. From catapulting the positronic into a garbled, incomprehensive reality of simulated emotions to simply heightening the senses, the illegal overloaders’ addictive and dangerous nature leads many synthetics to disrepair, involving behaviour breaking glitches, hardware failures and more, all while guaranteeing a returning clientele.<br />
<br />
Reception to recreational software has been mixed, dividing society and politicians on matters of free will, the dangers of overloaded IPC, and the overall ethics of deliberately creating and selling what are essentially drugs. Both synthetics and humans have loudly spoken against it, spawning demonstrations and dividing politicians across party lines. Legislation has already passed, categorising possession and distribution of illicit overdosers as strictly illegal, with heavy punishments for dealers and suppliers. Police and coast guard raids yield millions of unbranded overloaders each year, making highly publicised arrests while sending a message of absolute intolerance towards the malware. Despite this, circulation never ceases and exports to Xanu, Tau Ceti and Sol.<br />
<br />
==Population and Major Cities==<br />
<br />
[[File:Konyang_map_pol.png|thumb|800px|A map of Konyang showcasing the Prefectures and the New Hokkaido Territory. Click to enlarge.]]<br />
<br />
'''Suwon''' is the largest, most populated, and second wealthiest city on Konyang itself and is generally one of the larger cities in the Coalition of Colonies. It functions as both the planetary capital, as well as the capital of Suwon Prefecture, encompassing the entirety of Cheomsongtang. Symbolic of the new government is the Parliament Building, a massive structure of flowing lines and sustainable technology, incorporating pieces of the first colony ship. The Prime Minister's Government House, the President's Crimson House, the Solarian embassy, as well as embassies from various Coalition states are present here as well. Standards of living in wealthiest areas of Suwon are equivalent to and (sometimes) even surpass the living standards of places such as Highland City or Argia sa Mar, demonstrating how wealthy the robotics boom has made some sectors of the planet. A lack of readily-available materials, however, ensures that even the super-rich of Konyang often live in smaller houses than their Colonies planet counterparts. Life outside these wealthy areas is better than life in most cities in Himeo but dramatically worse than in the very wealthy areas, or even the cities of Xanu Prime. Overcrowding is a massive issue for the government of the city, with no obvious solution presenting itself due to how expensive importing new building materials is post-boom. The city is home to most of Konyang's biggest companies and office complexes, as well as the Suwon Stock Exchange, making the city's financial district the economy's beating heart. "Shoebox apartments" are common here, as are Konyang's often egregious traffic issues. The city is fortified with extensive sea walls, flood walls and flood gates to prevent natural disasters during the wet season, tropical storms being fairly common.<br />
<br />
[[File:Point verdant.png|thumb|One of Aoyama's many skyscraper blocks, safely located behind a dam.]]<br />
<br />
'''Aoyama''', known in the larger Spur as '''Point Verdant''', is the second most-populated city on Konyang, and the industrial heart of its robotics industry. Built along a coastal mountain range from which it draws its namesake, it is by far the wealthiest city on Konyang, and one of the richest cities in the Coalition of Colonies. Due to being home of the Robotics Boom, hosting foreigners and their families that once even surpassed the locals inside the city, Aoyama is frequently known outside to outsiders and to the Spur at large as Point Verdant, much to the chagrin of the locals. Aoyama is home to the renowned Point Verdant Terraneus Institute of AI Research, and is the poster child for the rapid development of Konyang's cities during the Boom. The city is extremely wealthy, but suffers from persistent overcrowding and traffic issues in all of its districts. The Pusan District, near PVTI, had the reputation of possessing the worst traffic in the Alliance according to its residents. Air quality in Aoyama is regarded as subpar, due to the amount of robotics factories in the city's outskirts, which have however slowly but steadily declined since. Being the focal point of the Robotics Boom, it is home to a large number of expatriate communities and Einstein Engines employees.<br />
<br />
'''Boryeong''', named after a city on historical Earth where some of its colonists originated from, is the third most populated city on Konyang and capital of the Boryeong Prefecture, referred to as the breadbasket of the nation. The city, while still suffering overcrowding issues, has it to a lesser extent than Point Verdant or Suwon, with the city's outskirts necessitating a need for space due to the vast hydroponics farms and water plants. A second-grade industrial city of much natural beauty, Boryeong is more rustic than its counterparts, with wood playing a much more prominent role in construction; outside the central ring, some of Boryeong's districts are built entirely out of timber. Water bottled or processed in Boryeong is sold throughout the Alliance and Coalition in bulk, and native moss grown in the prefecture is marketed throughout both as a luxury food. Over half of the city's labourers are employed in hydroponics, aquaculture, fishing and food processing, with Gwok Foods being the largest provider of work in the region. Synthetic moss is grown in Zeng-Hu facilities near Boryeong and, despite being regarded as lesser quality than natural moss, is often consumed in poorer areas of Konyang. <br />
<br />
'''Ganzaodeng''', named for its dry locale, is located in Konyang's only desert and holds the largest expatriate populations on the planet, being nicknamed, “Little Sol”. Due to its unique geographic setting, it faces remarkably calmer weather than the rest of the planet, with the city being connected to the rest of the island by air and rail that cuts right through the mountains. Ganzaodeng is Konyang's only planned city with origins in the Robotics Boom, when the foundations were laid for a city envisioned by foreigners, for foreigners. Rich Solarians descended upon the planet's seemingly only dry piece of real estate, building a city full of nightlife and eclectic inner-ring pleasures within the distant colony. By the end of the Boom however, the city's famous strips of casinos and luxury hotels still operating in downtown Ganzaodeng became a symbol of a bygone era, as much of the Solarian population elected to depart. The city passed into native Konyanger hands, being expanded into a hub of shipping with the help of the city's remaining big names. Because of the reliably clear weather, Ganzaodeng has developed a sprawling extraplanetary shipping sector, with plans for a spaceport larger than New Hong Kong’s, as well as future schemes for the largest oceangoing port on the planet. Its climate has resulted in the prefectural government engaging in moss filtration efforts to open up the surrounding beaches to tourism. Despite of the Solarian exodus, the city stands in contrast to the rest of Konyang’s relatively conservative social nature, with people from all over the Spur calling it their home and making it by far one of the most multicultural centers on the planet. It’s not uncommon for a person from Ganzaodeng to know two or three languages.<br />
<br />
'''Ushishir''', the least populous and most northern major city on Konyang, is the center of life in the New Hokkaido Territory. It was less impacted by the robotics boom than the rest of Konyang due to its location and instead has long served as a tourist destination for the planet and beyond, with the hills and mountains surrounding it being ideal for winter sports, and snow being on the ground year-round. Ushishir itself is fortunate enough to have a year-round port, but can sometimes find itself cut off from the broader territory by intense blizzards. Health tourism has become a major source of income for the city, with its air and springs advertised as the cleanest on Konyang. Much of the city is employed in the service or tourism industries, and it has become as famous for its nightlife as it is for its resorts. Konyanger organized crime has left its fingerprints on the nightlife of the city, with a small number of clubs being affiliated with either the Benevolent Guild or 5-Cheung. Ushishir is also known for its outdoor clothing industry, with local corporations such as Furukawa Footwear being known across Konyang. The cold temperatures of Ushishir and New Hokkaido have attracted a significant synthetic population, but most originate from outside the city — prior to 2462, only a sliver of its population was synthetic. In addition, its perceived safety from the hivebot incursion attracted many IPCs there after the Rampancy Crisis who settled primarily along its outskirts. Allegations abound that this resettlement was driven by 5-Cheung, who were happy to pay transportation costs in exchange for cheap labor for its various enterprises, and the Benevolent Guild, who were happy to see IPCs evicted from their territories. Its residents are often stereotyped as friendly and talkative, due to associations with its tourism and hospitality industries.<br />
<br />
'''New Hong Kong''', the site of the former naval base of the 58th Solarian Fleet, has now developed into a fully fledged city in its own right, being the only prefectural capital with a local synthetic majority. Being regarded as a lot more pedestrian and working-class than Suwon and Point Verdant, New Hong Kong is nonetheless a very important centre of interplanetary trade and commercial activity, hosting the planet’s largest ocean ports and dockyards, being the country's industrial's hotspot and the seat of power generation. Large hydroelectric dams, wave energy converters, dockyards and factories belonging to the PACHROM corporation provide employment for half of the city’s inhabitants, the Prefecture of New Hong Kong generating enough electricity for domestic consumption as well as exports. Employees of the various power companies may also elect to be sent off to one of the many power generation isles scattered throughout the oceans and dedicated solely to that purpose, receiving better pay in exchange for more dangerous conditions away from home. The city itself is considerably more packed than its counterparts, with small cramped apartments being stacked over each other to form vertical mazes of working class blocks. Heavy smog and particles cover up the sky through the entirety of the island during the dry season, giving the prefecture a signature orange-brown tint. This, as well as constant heavy rains and a near permanent gloomy weather during the wet season place it as undesirable for humans. Seat of the National Party, downtown New Hong Kong is described as the centre of planetary IPC politics, being the first to react to, condemning or praising events in Konyang and throughout the galactic stage in regards to the synthetic “race”. New Hong Kong is additionally the birthplace of Konyang's labor unions, with the Socialist Party enjoying strong support from the city's human blue-collar workforce.<br />
<br />
<br />
[[File:Konyangdam.png|thumb|900px|center|Dams are a very common sight on Konyang, with the New Hong Kong's dam in the neighbouring industrial town of New Kowloon providing only a fraction of the power required by the city, while also playing an important part in flood control and water filtration.]]<br />
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{{Navbox Konyang}}<br />
{{Navbox Human Lore}}<br />
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[[Category:Planets_and_Systems]]<br />
[[Category:Humanity]]<br />
[[Category:Pages]]</div>The Strykerhttps://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=User:The_Stryker/Sandbox_2&diff=35786User:The Stryker/Sandbox 22025-05-05T04:29:57Z<p>The Stryker: </p>
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<div>{{Navbox Lore}}<br />
{{Navbox Human Lore}}<br />
{{Navbox Konyang}}<br />
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==Overview==<br />
Originally established in 2305 as a Solarian Alliance Outer Ring planet, Konyang is presently one of the more distant outposts under the Coalition of Colonies after its independence in '''2462'''. Konyang’s capital city Suwon, the largest settlement on the planet, is built upon a natural formation that defines most of Konyang's geography: islands with large interior mountains that feature lush, but soaking wet, coastal jungle regions. Konyang was initially a relatively average Outer Ring settlement intended to export water, before the discovery of mysterious, deactivated drones in 2407 led to a robotics boom occuring on the planet that lasted well into the 2450s. The Konyang of today is a planet renowned for its robotics industry, though some of its initial luster has faded in the years following its boom. Water, however, remains a key industry - the planet has a remarkably low salination level, meaning that essentially all of its water is drinkable. Konyang Solarian Common, or Konyang Common, is the most used language on the planet inside and outside of major population centers. Due to its proximity to the Coalition of Colonies planets, Coalition member planets often import water from Konyang. In major cities and universities, Tradeband can be found being spoken, though it remains rare. Speakers of the language are generally from off-planet, moving to Konyang during its robotics boom. Konyang almost completely lacks valuable minerals due to intensive mining efforts carried out by drones—whose source remains unknown—hundreds of years before it was colonized.<br />
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'''Because of the ethnic make-up of Konyang's original settlers and assimilation of immigrants into the native population during the first AI boom, human characters born on Konyang will have names and appearances consistent with the people of China, the Korean Peninsula, and Japanese Islands. Only native Konyangers or Konyang-made IPCs may select the Konyanger accent. This is enforceable by server moderators and admins.'''<br />
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[[File:Konyang flag.png| The Konyanger flag was adopted in 2462, having unofficially been used by pro-autonomy circles long before the declaration of independence. The traditional taijitu represents peace and harmony as the highest values of the new state, with the color blue representing the waterways the planet is known for and yellow, their aim of prosperity. The white background represents Konyang's purity.<br />
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==History==<br />
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===Conception and Planning | 2200s - 2299===<br />
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When the United Nations proposed and eventually enforced the creation of the Alliance of Sovereign Solarian Nations, China, Korea and Japan were once more forced to band together to compete with the world for influence inside the newly found institution. Rivals such as the European Union, the Soviet Union, the Commonwealth and the United States were first in line to claim hegemonic roles, their space programs forming the core of Solarian colonization of the Inner, Middle and Outer rings over the centuries, populating them with their own peoples and sparking an unofficial race for prestige land grabs, one which the Department of Colonization was more than happy to let unfold, resulting in the extremely fast expansion of Humanity into the Orion Spur. While regional powers such as India and the Mediterranean countries began creating their own colonies on Gadpathur and Assunzione, the East Asian trio were relegated to secondary roles of supplying technology, labor and capital without any actual representation in the stars, a situation problematic for some and resented by many in the “sovereign” governments.<br />
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It was thus decided to present a plan to Solarian functionaries for a colony spearheaded by China and supported heavily by Korea and Japan, aimed at restoring the pride of the three “cousin-nations” and their position in the Alliance. Intense negotiations and technical planning amounted to years of disagreements over the name, location and allocation of responsibilities between the partners, as well as the presence of China’s Einstein Engines megacorporation, which offered to finance a great portion of the initial effort. Soon however, the advent of the Second Great Depression and the following Interstellar War in the mid-late 2200’s saw a bankrupt Alliance put a halt to any colonization projects, resulting in the plans being shelved. The war took a great toll on the core Solarian worlds, including Earth and its nations which were called to provide manpower, funds and materiel for the Solarian Navy. Federal China’s economy tanked completely under the pressure, relying on IMF bailouts and stays of payment on the salaries of its public sector, with pensionaries and students being most severely hit, resulting in massive social upheaval which would have long lasting consequences for the country’s financial hegemony in the post-war region.<br />
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As peace and relative stability returned, the Alliance found a newly independent, sizable and embittered Coalition of Colonies rival its claims in the Galactic East, calling for the presence of military garrisons and naval stations to protect the border. It was at this time that colonization projects were beginning to reemerge, with the Pacific Pact racing once more to submit a viable plan for a colony that would represent East Asia. A fatigued China could no longer bear the incredible costs it aspired to as the leader of the colonial venture before the war, giving significant leeway to the other two partners and largely retreating behind its megacorporation, Einstein Engines, which was still willing to back the endeavor. An aggressive Korean delegation largely dictated terms, giving birth to the “Konyang Project”, named after the Konyang University in which the colonial undertaking was revealed and presented to the public in 2299.<br />
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===Early Colonial Period | 2304 - 2400s===<br />
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[[File:solyang_flag.png|thumb|right|The flag of Konyang under Alliance administration.]]<br />
The plan envisioned five convoys for the establishment of four primary settlements on a strategically placed planet selected by the Solarian Navy for the support of local naval operations against any threats from the Frontier Alliance. The targeted planet was revealed to be a lush world first discovered in 2278 by a long-range scouting probe, dominated by water and possessing a breathable atmosphere, placing it in a prime position to sustain Human civilization. The quickly named “Haneunim” solar system possessed a few more bodies of secondary importance, and the first convoy was scheduled to launch on the 10th of March 2304, from the Wenchang spaceport in South China, to meet the long-distance freighters in orbit of Luna that would carry the first 5,000 colonists to Konyang. The ethnic mix-up of the colonists were equally distributed amongst the three nationalities, with all being volunteers and 646 of them under the employ of Einstein Engines.<br />
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It took the warp-propelled convoy one year to reach its destination, traversing light years of Solarian vastness before meeting the Navy squadron which would escort them to the planet, with touchdown being made on September 8th, 2305. Konyang was covered in jungles and great mountain ranges, requiring great labor from the men and women of the expedition to create the first settlement, under the direction of officers from the Department of Colonization. Two months later, Unity Station would receive the first signal passed along by the Navy, originating from beacon Number 22890/223, Designation ‘SUWON’. The foundations had been laid. In the following decades, all five convoys would come to form the basis of the “Konyang Territory”, a colony directly controlled by the Alliance and the Solarian Navy as the base of the 58th Fleet. Boosted by its status as a naval base, the abundance of freshwater and with the backing of Einstein, all three cities were realized; Suwon and Boryeong, New Hong Kong, and Aoyama, each at the start holding ethnic majorities of Koreans, Chinese and Japanese respectively.<br />
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===The Robotics Boom | 2407 - 2430s===<br />
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Despite the acceptable climate and near unlimited freshwater, the colonial government soon realized an alarming lack of mineral resources, forcing a complete reliance on external trade and supplies from the Navy for any and all industrial goods and even basic construction materials, a reality which had to be corrected as fast as possible. A planet-wide scanning expedition was organized, while “patriotic aid” was fervently being fundraised in China, Japan and Korea for nearly a whole century to cope with the colonists' increasing demands. This led to a landmark moment in the history of Konyang, when on the 21st of April 2404, mining teams dug into a collapsed tunnel outside the vicinity of Aoyama, discovering a defunct mining drone, crushed by tonnes of rock and soil. The chassis appeared broken and old, though its very presence implied the exploitation of the planet by a different civilization.<br />
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The device was hurried back in secrecy to a panel of dumbfounded colonial officials, who deemed that their corporate partners would be more suited in tracking down its origin. As such, after a quick formality bid behind closed doors, the Alliance sold off its odd piece of government property to Einstein Engines whose scientists saw it as a curious case worth pursuing. Month after month, the Terraneus Diagnostics laboratory in Aoyama kept receiving bits and pieces from similar drones recovered from abandoned, centuries-old mineshafts, culminating in the 2406 discovery of a sealed vault containing a great number of intact mining drones. The severity of this discovery was immediately apparent to the scientists. Words were had with the governor of Konyang by the local Einstein Engines representative, and it was decided to keep the drones a very closely-guarded secret - with only select Terraneus and government officials even being aware of their existence at all, let alone what was being done with them.<br />
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The Terraneus research team worked feverishly, though in secret, for months upon months. Staff were quietly shipped in from offworld in order to not alert outside observers, and the team continued to work upwards of eighty hour weeks in order to crack the drones. In mid-2407, they achieved one of the most remarkable breakthroughs in recent scientific memory by cracking the AI algorithms of the drones. Information of this moved rapidly from the local Einstein Engines office up the corporate chain and moved equally rapidly up the government's chain from provincial office to Sol itself. The information spread like wildfire, and humanity now had the secret of AI despite not truly knowing from where or who these machines came from. This was little more than a footnote to the Nralakk Federation - to them, these AI were crude and hardly approached the machines that had driven their civilization to ruin.<br />
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The robotics boom of Konyang caused a variety of benefits and harms to the previously marginal outer ring planet. The economy ballooned massively, as did its standard of living and industries. Konyang moved from a rural backwater that exported food and water to a high-tech planet that still exported basic goods, but primarily focused upon robotics. Megacorporations flocked to the planet: Einstein Engines, already present through Terraneus, rapidly secured dominance over the planet; Hephaestus Industries struggled with Einstein dominated competition before selling its factories over to local government control in 2427; and Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals, despite its skrell benefactors, purchased rights to examine the planet's biosphere from Einstein. The fact that their prosthetic limbs were originally designed on this planet has been stated to be a "happy coincidence" by its board. Due to the mass arrival of corporations, jobs were readily available - the planet was booming.<br />
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A massive migration wave of Einstein employees and their families to Aoyama made the city wrangle the spot of first in importance from the nominal capital of Suwon, to the point where the expatriate scientific community and their dependents outnumbered the local Japanese original colonists. The city quickly became known to Humanity as “Point Verdant”, the name assigned to the Terraneus Diagnostics laboratory in Aoyama, while the parent countries on Earth invested billions to capitalize on the success of their colonial project, to lift the planet into a modern world and reap the public relations benefits of their colony achieving a breakthrough in artificial intelligence.<br />
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The rapid expansion of Konyang's industries and cities had overtaxed the limited bureaucracy on the planet to the breaking point, and architects were in short supply. Urban planning on Konyang is estimated to be some of the worst in Alliance space outside of New Hai Phong as a result, with cities such as Point Verdant often having haphazard roads running through them and districts smashed together with no apparent rhyme or reason - a legacy of corporate jockeying for areas of interest, and the municipal corruption that came with it. There are countryside facilities originally utilized for drone research and retrieval that have, in recent years, fallen into disuse and disarray. Such facilities often dot the mountains and foothills of Konyang, slowly being overtaken by nature - sometimes with unfortunate results when these facilities have been improperly stripped of dangerous materials. The environment also suffered in areas where drones were found - jungles were cut or burnt away by corporations in order to get at the precious drones below, prefab buildings were orbitally dropped and erected, and landing zones were cut into the landscape itself.<br />
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The stormy tidal waves so infamous for tormenting the early colonists were tamed through the building of sea walls, a comprehensive road network linked the remote villages with the urban centers, and the city of Ganzaodeng was raised from the rocky desert. The Konyanger conglomerate PACHROM would mark the rise of the first native Chaebols, building shipyards, dams, hydroelectric plants and the first space fleet capable of ferrying enormous capacities of water across interstellar systems.<br />
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===The Positronic Integration | 2410s===<br />
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Soon enough, IPCs entered production on the planet, making Konyang one of the first places to embrace the positronic revolution. The limited resources saw higher prices, lessening the availability of domestically produced frames. Furthermore, the still rudimentary waterproofing technologies meant that IPCs could not work for long hours without shelter, ensuring that human jobs would remain safe from automation. When in the rest of Sol IPCs were produced en-masse for labor, Konyanger IPCs were more integrated in white-collar employment and indoors service-related work. Meanwhile, a growing media culture based on animation combined with the Konyanger recycle-friendly attitude, giving newer generations a fresh look on positronic intelligence, one that valued them as people rather than a disposable resource. The lack of widespread automation never brought the anti-synthetic sentiment so common in the rest of Sol, and IPCs in time became a unique cultural phenomenon in the colony’s urban centers.<br />
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Solarian laws governing the relations between IPCs and mankind were nominally enforced on Konyang, barring synthetics from gaining their own freedom, a fact which remained a thorn between the more liberal, younger Konyangers and the older generations. Einstein Engines allied with the Solarian governorship to press for the continuing status of Konyang as a colony, preventing elections and thus any liberal political influence from threatening the company’s grip on its synthetic workforce. This however, did not prevent Konyanger society to further integrate IPCs, even if the concept of universal citizenship for all synthetics was still far from publicly accepted. Aoyama was most receptive to the positronics, as a center of research and culture, with IPCs welcomed in people’s houses, treated like family and celebrated in festivals and even religious ceremonies. Suwon sentiment remained ambivalent, though many Solarian officials and naval officers expressed most severe concerns, in many cases pressing for crackdowns and questioning the morals of Konyanger citizens. The denizens of New Hong Kong and Ganzaodeng on the other hand, were most unhappy, with the powerful Chinese factory and shipyard labor unions remaining vocally opposed to IPC rights in the workplace, owing to their ties with the wider Solarian unions.<br />
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The profound effects of the emergence of this positronic culture were soon felt across the planet, change being heralded through a wave of demonstrations in mid to late 2412. High school and university students in Aoyama took to the streets to call for synthetic rights, in one of the few instances of pro-IPC disturbances on Solarian soil. In particular, the students called for the immediate emancipation of owned synthetics, marching from the main First Avenue down to the Governor's House and being joined by crowds of people and IPCs alike. The Aoyama Constabulary alongside Terraneus security forces were ordered to put a swift end to the march, resulting in the first major incident since the founding of the colony. Over 400 student injuries were recorded, the crowds responding with rocks and branches to the authorities’ tear gas and water cannons. 247 arrests were made that day, sparking additional outrage in the student movement as the ringleaders were tried as adults and given lengthy prison sentences. Smaller incidents were also noted in Suwon and Boryeong, marking 2412 as a year of upheaval and social change, laying the foundations for full IPC citizenship.<br />
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===Late Colonial Period | 2410s - 2440s===<br />
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As Konyang left behind the troubled ’10s and social peace returned through decrees permitting local city authorities to afford certain permissions for IPCs. This followed the final robotics' boom peak in the 2430s, seeing the planet’s GDP growth reach new levels. The colony’s industrial potential skyrocketed, with hundreds of hydroelectric dams, sea walls and shipyards creating thousands of new jobs in New Hong Kong, the new industrial core of Konyang. Labour relations shifted dramatically, as the new Hephaestus-pioneered industrial chassis enabled IPCs to work in the most difficult of conditions, sidelining and driving off the all powerful Gwongfu labor unions, with human employees forced into the urban centers and Ganzaodeng, contributing to a skyrocketing of the local IPC population in the prefecture.<br />
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Suwon saw a significant rise in business activity with the outside world, emboldening private ventures to the neighboring Frontier Alliance, bringing in massive profits from moss and entertainment exports. The animation industry reached new heights, with hundreds of new studios producing pioneering and high quality work, including classics like “One Day in My Life” and “Tomonomimi”, two of the most highly acclaimed works of media in recent Solarian memory. The entertainment sector brought new life to the Konyanger tourism industry as well, with more and more people rediscovering the distant hidden gem tucked deep in the fringes of the Alliance. The Suwon Stock Exchange was listed for the first time in the Chicago Financial Review, Sol’s most coveted investment periodical, as “Upcoming”, leading to billions of credits flowing in the country from abroad.<br />
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New chaebol conglomerates emerged, replacing even Einstein products with widely successful “Local, Cheaper and Better” campaigns. While Gwok Foods was making headlines in 2439 as the most successful Konyanger “IPC-inspired” exporter by yearly gross tonnage, the Ayame Motor Corporation created the first “completely Konyanger” 2-seat automobile designed for the cramped roads of Suwon and Point Verdant, becoming an instant hit. The Boryeong based Mujigae Publishing brought comics back into the youth’s hands, and Konymation had expanded to control cinemas, movie production studios, theme parks and restaurant chains in its ever expanding media empire.<br />
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===Independence and Present Day | 2462 - Present===<br />
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The Mars Violet Dawn catastrophe of 2462 signaled an era of widespread uncertainty and energy insecurity for the entirety of the Sol Alliance, with the Spur-wide phoron crisis exacerbating the situation for the Alliance’s Middle and especially Outer Ring colonies. A Konyanger recession in the late 2450s had already stretched the colonial government thin, with riots over the cost of living and unemployment in New Hong Kong and Suwon making national news for years on end. As the shaken corporations entered discussions on how they would survive the ever increasing phoron costs, it was made clear to everyone that the Alliance could not, and would not fund the refitting of the corporate fleets with the new Suzuki-Zhang Hammer Drive engine, threatening the complete cutoff of Konyang from outer space should the local Bluespace gate fail. Only a few Einstein vessels and the 58th Fleet stationed on the planet remained as the only reliable link between Konyang and the Spur.<br />
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The shortage soon hit the domestic market, leading to dangerous price increases for even the most essential of supplies. The average Konyanger saw their purchasing power plummet, as salaries remained stagnant in the face of a decreasing supply. The colonial Governor Hyun Kyung-Ho, turned to the only emergency option left, Earth. It was not the first time that Patriotic Aid was raised in China, Korea and Japan, though this time it proved most underwhelming. As the call for help fell on ears of men that could not even help their own economies, the trophy colony had to be abandoned to its own devices, with many in the East Asian public accusing Konyangers of greed and forgetting them in their apogee of financial success. With this last link to the past cut off, the question and possibility of independence soon started circling.<br />
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There was no time for serious debate however, with the Alliance being plunged into rebellion and collapse. On November 12, the 58th Fleet hastily departed Konyang, declaring a state of emergency in the system and abandoning the colonial government to its fate. Only elements of the Solarian Army and the Constabularies remained to maintain order, themselves being composed almost entirely of local Konyanger enlisted. The situation immediately turned into unrest, as public sentiment against the ineptitude of the Alliance boiled over into the streets. Massive student protests saw the storming of public buildings and central plazas in every major town and city, demanding a sharp reduction to the cost of living, IPC emancipation and a barring of the 58th Fleet from returning. Government reaction was mild, limited to the prevention of damages and protection of private property. Hyun Kyung-Ho was otherwise sympathetic to the students’ cause, sparking outrage within groups of Alliance-minded Army officers and Einstein corporate elites, who sought to prevent any secession of Konyang.<br />
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Thus, on November 15 2462, elements of the Army garrison under Lieutenant General Jiang Hongbing mobilized against the wishes of the Governor, taking up key positions in Suwon and Point Verdant. The mutinous 8th Sappers infiltrated the historic SUWON beacon telecommunications complex, preparing the country for a silent coup and preventing any long range communications with Sol. Jiang Hongbing, inspired by actions of mutinous admirals, took it upon himself to restore Konyang to the Alliance by marching the Army into the streets. While some of the formations under his command were willing to participate, the vast majority refused to bear arms against the Konyanger Governor or the student movements. In the following day, an internal power struggle saw many officers confined to their quarters, with Army hardliners being arrested, chased off or even assaulted in their own barracks as a loyalist armored brigade blocked access to the Governor’s House, preventing Hongbing’s men from touching Hyun Kyung-Ho.<br />
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With the coup’s inglorious end visible, the Governor’s staff were racing into negotiations with diplomatic officers from Coalition of Colonies still in the country for an express accession into the Coalition, following Konyang’s independence. Jiang Hongbing’s associates surrendered, himself fleeing into the thick jungles of Boryeong Prefecture, declaring a patriotic struggle in the Alliance’s name before soon being betrayed and confined at the 58th base’s Brig. On November 24 2462, telecommunications were restored, and Konyanger independence was broadcast to the world. The country’s preliminary accession into the Coalition was soon after announced, turning a new leaf in Konyang’s history. While the news was received with muted reaction from a confused Alliance government with more pressing matters to handle, the secession of Konyang was a huge blow to the three parent countries. After Governor Hyun Kyung-Ho assembled the nation’s intellectuals, economic and political figures, it was decided that he would remain in place as independent Konyang’s first Governor to organize free elections and set up the foundations for a democratic state.<br />
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Now, as a free Konyang comes out to the world stage, strong government initiative has seen its large synthetic factories nationalized, rapidly introducing legislation to establish the relationship with Einstein Engines. While they still are the dominating megacorporation on the planet, Einstein has lost most of its heavy industry, though still retaining the important research facilities around the vaults, as well as a good portion of software and positronic brain creation.<br />
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==Location and Environment==<br />
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===The Haneunim System===<br />
The Haneunim System, centered around the yellow star it is named for, Haneunim, contains four major celestial bodies, including the planet of Konyang. The whole system bears evidence of ancient mining operations, missing an asteroid belt to separate the inner and outer system with what few rocks remain being mostly picked clean of minerals.<br />
* '''Huozhu'''<br />
The innermost planet is known as Huozhu and remains practically inaccessible due to the scorching heat of Haneunim. Unmanned drones have indicated that the planet, which is visible to the naked eye on Konyang, is greatly lacking in any mineral wealth and has no atmosphere to speak of.<br />
* '''Hwanung'''<br />
The second planet from Haneunim, Hwanung, is an insignificant dwarf planet believed to have maintained a thin arid atmosphere before most of its mass was artificially stripped away. While relatively close to Konyang and far cooler than Huozhu, observation and a handful of expeditions revealed that most of the planet's crust had been artificially stripped away, exposing its solid, icy mantle. Konyanger exogeologists continue to survey the planet from time to time and PACHROM has obtained a permit to mine ice in order to meet their quotas to Orepit.<br />
* '''Qixi'''<br />
The third planet in the System is Konyang, accompanied by its lifeless moon of Qixi. Qixi is noteworthy for housing a KASF base and shipyard, the Konyanger military's largest off-planet possession; while more prestigious than working aboard one of the KASF's orbital stations, being posted here is considered boring by some. Some in the government have discussed plans to build more shipping hubs on the moon, akin to Biesel's own Valkyrie, but these talks have largely remained academic due to adequacy of Konyang's existing spaceport facilities.<br />
* '''Shiranui'''<br />
Shiranui, a ringed gas giant colored blue thanks to its methane composition, is the outermost planet from Haneunim. Prior to the discovery of phoron, private companies operated over three dozen methane-harvesting facilities in orbit around Shiranui. That number has dwindled down to just thirteen in the past few decades; the remaining workers, their families having often worked in the industry for many years, are usually bitter towards NanoTrasen. The Aerospace Forces keep a number of unmanned satellites around the gas giant in order to better monitor pirate and refugee activity.<br />
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An asteroid belt, far to the outskirts and composed mostly of ice, forms a ring around the entire system, although this remains largely unexploited by both the Konyanger government and local corporations. It is instead the stomping ground of both refugees fleeing the Sol Wildlands, and the pirates that seek to prey on them.<br />
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===Geography===<br />
[[File:Konyang_map_sat.png|A geographic map of Konyang, showcasing the planet's different biomes. |thumb|800px]]<br />
Primarily a tropical world smaller than Earth, Konyang boasts a mean radius of 5,111 kilometers. Freshwater oceans cover upwards of 88% of the planet’s surface. These oceans also grant Konyang its signature green color when viewed from orbit, in no small part thanks to the abundant presence of moss in the planet’s waterways. The planet’s continents are classified by its larger landmasses and island chains, although given the tides, the planet remains studded with small island chains and archipelagos that ebb and flow with the season. Two small ice caps exist on Konyang where the planet experiences a miniscule amount of snowfall and cold climates. The Konyanger terrain is principally mountainous, with large ranges covering vast areas of the planet’s landmasses. The tallest peak belongs to Mount Sansin, the highest mountain standing at a record 13.890 meters above sea level, its base forming an island of its own. Flanking the mountains are usually lush jungles, present in almost every island and continent in varying densities. This means that settlements have to be located in clearings adjacent to the coastline, on terrain with relatively even elevation. The largest and most dense jungle is located in Bukupo, an island in the heart of the Boryeong Prefecture. The largest landmass on the planet is Cheomseongtang, home of the Suwon prefecture and the nation’s capital. Other notable landmasses are the Oshima islands, hosting the largest mountain ranges, as well as the Yu islands, home of the only biome that could be described as a desert. New Hokkaido is the largest northernmost territory, renowned for its biodiversity and frosty tundra due to its proximity to the planet’s pole, as well as a unique lack of jungles. It is administered directly by the Government of Konyang, being the site of many scientific expeditions and military exercises, only boasting a population of a few hundred people.<br />
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===Environment===<br />
[[File:Konyang.png|An image of Konyang, displaying mossy oceans and algae-covered water as the face of the planet. |thumb]]<br />
Konyang features a highly atypical environment for a habitable planet: it is entirely freshwater. The surface of the planet is primarily oceans, with estimates placing upwards of 88% of the planet as covered in water. What is not under the sea are the islands of Konyang, where the vast majority of its population lives. These islands follow a general pattern: a small coastal area and a large mountain range ringing the island. The freshwater oceans of Konyang feature a remarkable diverse biosphere, and Konyang underwater flora, such as freshwater moss, is often used in the planet's native dishes and exported offworld, as far afield as Sol and Tau Ceti. Konyang is defined by two seasons: wet, lasting nine months, and dry, lasting three months.<br />
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The coastal regions of Konyang represent the smallest regions of its islands, but contain upwards of 90% of the planet's population. Often called the "coastal jungles" of Konyang, these areas are extremely wet - flooding is an issue in many areas, though the bulk of populated and urban areas are protected by extensive flood protection infrastructure, primarily lengthy complexes of walls. Coastal areas feature a wealth of plant and animal life, both of which have been put under stress by the rapid expansion of Konyang's cities.<br />
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Although Konyang’s coastal waters are often tinted green from moss, even more so than its oceans, harvesting and cleanup efforts along the coasts of the main and important islands have resulted in some sections of the planet appearing blue. These areas are often exploited for settlements and as tourist destinations for their scenic looks, while dedicated seaweed and algae farms dot the planet, providing an income for local villages and traditional producers. The most famous Konyanger food exporter, Go-Go Gwok!, has the largest involvement in the moss and seaweed industry.<br />
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The inland mountain ranges of Konyang can be up to several kilometers in height in some areas, with smaller foothills featuring some rare settlements leading up to them. These ranges, which are mostly devoid of any valuable minerals, are the reason for Konyang's jungles - they form an effective rain shadow. Some mountains have what is assumed to be collapsed mines in them, deactivated drones scattered throughout.<br />
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A phenomenon unique to the easternmost Yu islands of the Ganzaodeng prefecture, inland deserts are created due to the rain shadow caused by the surrounding mountain ranges. These are the least populated areas of the planet. Extraordinarily dry, little grows or lives in these environments. Rare Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals facilities can be found in this area, taking advantage of the isolation and relatively sterile environment that the inland deserts offer.<br />
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Lastly, the oceans of Konyang are regularly stormy, the large waves being harnessed for their energy in electricity production at numerous such outposts, scattered throughout the unpopulated islets in the farthest and most secluded areas.<br />
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===Flora and Fauna===<br />
Wildlife on Konyang is a peculiar mix of its original environment and the thousands of invasive species introduced by Human colonization. Species introduced in the initial colonization of the planet include huge herbivores and peaceful, if ecologically destructive, wildlife. Additionally, the large oceans are host to an uncountable number of species of fish, crustaceans and aquatic molluscs, with many being unique to their region of origin. Flora on Konyang is among its most famed aspects, spearheaded by the mossy shores and overgrowth which covers the vast majority of its visible terrain. All plant life which survives on Konyang must survive the extremely damp environment, and as such either thrives in the water, or is capable of moving away from it. Konyang's waters are famously covered in green moss and seaweed, giving it its signature color when viewed from orbit.<br />
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Some examples of unique flora and fauna are:<br />
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'''Shelfers'''<br />
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In the marsh and lowlands of Konyang's algae coasts resides an invasive species of large omnivores known as '''Shelfers.''' These are gluttonous moss-feasting beasts, with a distinct six-legged and bloated appearance. They are excellent swimmers, owed to webbed joints and a wedge shaped, slick head. From this, it uses a set of large protruding teeth to scrape moss and undersea growths. This creature is endangered, and displayed as a national animal thanks to its unique appearance. Originally a danger to unprepared colonization, these gained a reputation for its tendency to attack colonists.<br />
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These were first encountered by colonists who had shipped wildlife to and from Arusha, where escaped subjects managed to reproduce- over the years becoming a cultural icon due to their miraculous beneficial place they have in Konyang's ecosystem.<br />
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'''Konyanger Jeweler Cockatoo'''<br />
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Known for its affinity to decorate its nesting grounds with surface-level pearls and gems of all sorts is an opportunistic carnivore, the '''Jeweler Cockatoo.''' This large avian is an offshoot of the Earth parrot, bred originally to “liven the landscape” of Konyang’s dreary inner mountainous lands. Eventually, with the assistance of high-level genetic modification, they grew to giant proportions whilst maintaining the health and lifestyle of a standard - ''if highly dangerous'' - parrot. <br />
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Where small patches of forest and barrens clash, these birds thrive and craft beautiful roosts in the relative safety of open fields. In these fields, diminutive predators avoid the large avian’s glare (or don’t, and are frequently preyed upon.) The Jeweler Cockatoo possesses two sharp talons on one digit of each of its feet, and a short - but unbelievably sharp beak, refined further by its tendency to dig. The wingspan of these birds can grow up to fifteen feet.<br />
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The Jeweler Cockatoo is the national bird of Konyang, with many stylized imagery depicting the bird in some shape or form.<br />
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'''Glittering Konyang Moss'''<br />
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Found in vast plains of coastal territories in excess is the overflowing, yet precious resource of '''Konyang moss.''' One of its primary exports, this barely-tapped commodity retains a huge capacity to feed Konyang’s already sturdy ecosystem, and the billions which reside upon it, and more to export. The evolutionary process which grew this mystical, shimmering moss is a mystery, however its luster and fields of green it generates has a wonderful impact on sustaining Konyang’s moist, overgrown and greenery-rich habitat. <br />
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Konyang moss is pivotal to its moving industries, and even after the robotics boom, it remains a stable source of incoming development for the since-burgeoning planet. The moss’ nutritional properties have been highly studied in recent decades. Its rapid pace of growth is exclusive to Konyang’s ecological circumstances, with everything from subterranean heat, to the algae present in its beautiful green seas factoring in.<br />
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==Economy==<br />
While young, the nation of Konyang boasts a powerful regional economy built upon decades of trade with both the Alliance and various Coalition partners. A developed country, Konyang manages to surpass its near total lack of ore with robust exports of foodstuff and energy, a strong shipping industry and a powerful robotics sector.<br />
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===Raw Materials===<br />
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[[File:Konyang dam.png|thumb|Dams and sea walls are a common sight on Konyang, used to protect cities and population centres from floods and tsunamis, as well as to exploit the violent waves for electricity.]]<br />
Konyang's freshwater oceans were perhaps the largest boon to the starting colonists, and continues to play a substantial role behind the planet's exports. Fishing provides for a large aspect of the domestic economy, with millions of fishing boats and trawlers scouring the shores and oceans for all kinds of fish, crustaceans and other aquatic creatures, of which a complete list doesn't exist. Such is the biodiversity in Konyang's waters, that each region has its own fish markets which serve clients all over the planet and the Spur. Besides fishing, Konyang's biggest aquatic produce in terms of volume belongs to its enormous seaweed and moss harvesting industries. Entire ships are purpose-built for collecting wild greenery which floats on the high seas and the bays of Konyang, bringing in billions in offworld exports and domestic sales. The harvesting of moss is not exclusive to the sea and the aquatic farms either, as many edible varieties are collected inland, both in the planet's jungles and mountain ranges. Konyanger moss is Spur-renowned thanks to powerful marketing campaigns and the spread of the planet's cuisine.<br />
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With tremendously stormy wet seasons lasting most of the year, it is no surprise that Konyanger corporations have attempted and managed to harness the energy of the wind, waves and waters of the planet. Electricity is generated through a network of dams, hydroelectric plants, wave power stations and tidal power stations, all dotted across the vast shores and oceans of Konyang. The electricity produced is then either stored in super capacitors, or is directly wired inland through thick underwater cables, catering to the needs of virtually every power grid on the globe. Much of it is also transported on board space freighters lined with rows of large batteries, ready to make the journey to Alliance and Coalition worlds as part of the lucrative electricity export industry.<br />
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Lastly, Konyang excells in the export of water and timber. The continent-spanning untouched jungles provide an excellent source of wood for foreign markets as well as domestic construction, of which there is very heavy use in lieu of metal structures. The freshwater is also extremely easy to chemically filter, skipping any desalination process before being bottled or shipped as-is on board of one of many of Konyang's water barges; large hollow space vessels with tankers and pools for water storage.<br />
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===Maritime Shipping===<br />
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Surface shipping is another one of the main forces behind Konyang's domestic market economy, and an inseparable part of the nation's maritime culture. The docks and shipyards of New Hong Kong are the beating heart of the sector, which provides employment to more than 20% of the entire planet's population. Entire towns were formed and dedicated to housing the laborers and their families close to the coast, and many islands subsist entirely off of seamen's salaries and work at nearby electricity stations. Surface shipping, while slower, is a lot more economical for planetary moving of goods across the continents and islands of Konyang, being preferred to airlifting or orbital shuttling. Aside from the creation of jobs and the transportation of goods, Konyang's shipping industry produces excellent sailors who can rival those of planets such as Europa, many of whom eventually transition to space.<br />
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===Robotics and Services===<br />
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Ever since the robotics boom, Konyang has become a major player in the export and development of IPCs and everything surrounding them. Each year, the most cutting edge technologies catered to the improvement of the life of synthetics are released by Konyanger software companies, often to critical acclaim. This is because of the the substantial positronic population, free and eager to spend on such innovations that allow them to experience the world in a more human-like fashion. When it comes to the export of IPCs, Einstein Engines remains the prime manufacturer of chassis and positronic brains, which are shipped abroad without being activated. The practice, while putting Konyang on the map as one of the big regional producers of synthetics, is a hotly contested area between deeply entrenched corporate interests and an increasingly politically aware IPC populace. Non-positronic robotics are a separate, but once significant part of the economy, with Konyang having hoeld high places in the spur leaderboards for the making of robots, mechs, pAIs and automated systems. This sector however, took a major hit as the robotics boom slowly deflated, leaving behind abandoned industrial complexes and derelict factories.<br />
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The nation's service sector has to be one of the biggest ones, contributing a sizeable portion of the country's Gross Domestic Product. Many of the companies listed on the Suwon Stock Exchange are everything from financial consultation firms, to insurance agencies, housed in every majpr city's financial district. Skyscrapers and office complexes in downtown Suwon, Point Verdant and New Hong Kong are a daily reminder of the office life millions of Konyangers live, and many parents dream of their child being able to one day find employment in a top law firm or such. While mostly concentrated in the domestic market, many of these companies have expanded their services abroad, building a reputation of Konyanger reliability and impeccable work.<br />
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===Konyanger Corporations===<br />
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In terms of the traditional megacorporations, the undoubted hegemon remains Einstein Engines, entrenched in the planet's life since the beginning of Konyang's colonization. The megacorporation owns a number of subsidiaries on the planet in many different sectors, most notably, Terraneus Diagnostics, which regularly bankrolls and invests in government initiatives in exchange for their continuous presence. It retains the original research facilities and control over the vaults, even if IPC production and exports are now handled by the Konyang Robotics Corporation, a public company in which Einstein controls a 49% stake. The Terraneus facilities on the planet mainly handle shell research and positronic brain production for export to the Coalition, while they occasionally butt heads with Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals in the realm of IPC research. Zeng-Hu has the second-largest megacorporate presence, mainly in biosphere research and sales of pharmaceuticals. Despite this, local conglomerates generally dominate the country’s financial sector, commanding the government’s cooperation and good graces in order to keep a stable economy. Upon achieving independence, Konyang has managed to maintain a strong presence of homegrown corporations in the fields of agriculture, media, energy and consumer goods.<br />
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'''PACHROM'''<br />
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A chemical and engineering corporation, PACHROM builds, maintains and manages eighty percent of all private dams, hydroelectric plants and seawalls on Konyang, as well as engaging in the field of chemicals and plastics production. Headed by Park Moon-soo, the business mogul is vying for influence with the government as indispensable to the nation’s energy output and defence against floods and natural disasters, making the “Pachrom Parks” one of the richest and most powerful business dynasties on the planet. Headquartered in central Suwon, the bulk of PACHROM’s operations are located in diasporic, uninhabited islands in the middle of the world’s oceans, where hundreds of organic and synthetic workmen toil daily to run the water powered electricity plants in extremely dangerous conditions.<br />
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The company’s notorious reputation for neglecting the safety of its employees and the environmental disregard for waste disposal from its plastics factories has been a big stain the Parks have struggled to wash off. While their ties to both the Alliance administration and the Konyang government have proven instrumental in their ability to dodge damning legal action, demonstrations of public outcry are a common feature in and around the street opposite the PACHROM office complex. To counter this, public relations campaigns are a constant focus, with tens of millions being spent in portraying them in a positive light. Charities are a large part of the Park family’s social presence, sponsoring public works and offering scholarships mainly in the Boryeong and New Hong Kong prefectures, where the majority of employees originate.<br />
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Often finding itself without funds from Unity Station, the colonial administration would commission PACHROM in the form of lucrative contracts for the construction of dams and power stations, allowing the utilisation of synthetics and IPC for the dangerous labour required. Due to society’s favourable opinion towards positronic intelligence, the multitude of cases of IPC fatalities would be swept under the rug with government assistance, creating a culture of tolerance towards lacklustre safety features and general disregard. Today, PACHROM’s future remains uncertain as the newly independent state of Konyang wishes tends to distance itself from its shaky past, a fact indicated by the recent awarding of the Kaneyama nuclear plant to the public company GON-ENE.<br />
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'''Gwok Group'''<br />
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Founded in the early 2410s with the name Hyeonsang Foods, the precursor to today’s multinational food conglomerate was the first attempt at commercialising Konyang’s seaweed and moss both for export and internal consumption. Initially finding limited success due to an overly competitive local market and foreign consumers' reluctance to the Konyanger novelty, the company's defining moment arrived during the robotics boom, launching them from mediocrity into the billion credit business stage.<br />
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As Einstein Engines staff poured into Point Verdant, Hyeonsang secured a contract from the megacorporation's local branch for providing meals and miscellaneous catering to workers and research staff. The once alienated Einstein employees would soon come around, praising the brand for its flavourful seasoning and convenience, eventually spreading the word to Einstein facilities and back home. By the late 40s, Hyeonsang was on the track of significant financial success, having secured a large foothold in the foreign dominated central districts of Point Verdant.<br />
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Rebranding into the more consumer friendly “Gwok” name in 2452, the company’s reputation abroad led to the opening of regional branches in the Solarian middle and core worlds, generating an increasingly massive amount of income, used for an aggressive takeover of the local Konyanger market. By buying off competitors, monopolising the moss and seaweed industry and introducing new marketing, Gwok’s domestic success was soon guaranteed as the primary supplier of supermarkets. In 2454 the IPC Gwok-0783, until then a senior executive and the face of the company as the main influencer of the rebrand, assumed direct control as CEO of the conglomerate thus becoming the first IPC in charge of a billion credit corporation in Sol space. The following years would see the consolidation of all affiliated assets and filial companies under an umbrella Gwok Group, topping the charts and establishing a farming, food and restaurant chain empire.<br />
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'''Konymation'''<br />
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Konymation represents the peak of the Konyanger animated media scene, being by far the most successful and most well known studio in the country, with a Spur-wide fame. It arose in the early days of the robotics boom, creating a resurgency of animations for both children and adults. While the industry was almost non-existent and cheap Solarian cartoons were the norm, a group of inspired artists came together to animate and direct the first feature-length production from Konyang, using native voice actors and a brand new artstyle of their own. The result was "One Day in my Life", a slice of life film following the daily routine of an IPC secretary in a human-dominated world, becoming an instant hit with both domestic and foreign audiences. Since then, Konymation rose to become the largest studio of quality animations, creating films and series for all ages and of all genres. Such was the success, that any animated pieces from Konyang have passed into the public consciousness simply as "Konymations", referred to as such in both the planet and abroad. Since their foundation, the studio has developed into a media conglomerate, buying out holoscreen channels, online platforms, news networks and more.<br />
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'''Mujigae Publishing'''<br />
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The biggest publishing house, Mujigae is to the comic book industry what Konymation is to animation. Having created thousands of interesting and touching comic series, Mujigae is credited with bringing paper back into the hands of millions of Konyangers, in an age where digital platforms have become the default for nearly everything in life. Many of Mujigae's works find great demand abroad as well as at home, with the company being known for their efforts to constantly seek out and recruit new artists with fresh ideas. A plethora of published series often find themselves being adapted into the holoscreen in lucrative partnerships with Konymation, as well as the other way around. Additionally, Mujigae's philanthropic work cannot go unmentioned; millions of credits have found their way to various charities on Konyang, primarily those regarding the children, the money drawn from art festivals and comicons that are hosted annually, often with the participation of the Ministry of Culture. <br />
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'''Konyang Robotics Corporation'''<br />
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The Konyang Robotics Corporation, or KRC as is more commonly known, is the country's largest government-controlled company centered around the manufacture, maintenance and welfare of the nation's positronic population. Borrowing heavily from Einstein know-how and infrastructure, it originated from the nationalization of Einstein and Terraneus IPC factories, with the majority of their employees swapping over to a government payroll. Einstein Engines controls 49% of the shares of the company, lending it tremendous behind-the-scenes influence on Konyang's synthetic population.<br />
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The primary function of the KRC is the production, storage and activation of IPC citizens. A very politically and socially sensitive topic, great care is placed by the government through the Ministry of Health and Positronic Affairs to meticulously calculate and order the amount of yearly activations, so as to maintain the Human-IPC ratio and meet the demands of the job market. To that effect, the KRC also acts as a sort of "school" for the newly activated IPC citizens, with special orientation camps where synthetics are taught about Konyanger society before released to the world.<br />
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Furthermore, the KRC acts as the primary health provider for Konyanger IPCs, with clinics and hospitals situated in every town and city, as well as strategically placed in certain villages in the countryside. Thousands of roboticists, engineers and software technicians are employed by the KRC to act as the equivalents of surgeons, physicians, nurses and paramedics for the IPC population, who are afforded universal healthcare through the KRC. Appointment times are dependent on location and the capacity of the clinic or hospital, with many in more remote areas having to wait months for limb replacements and other, more heavy duty needs that cannot be met by their local KRC center.<br />
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'''GON-ENE'''<br />
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GON-ENE is a newly formed, state-controlled energy utilities company, created following the announcement of the Kaneyama Nuclear Power Plant. Perceived as a direct competitor to PACHROM, GON-ENE has been planned to expand into hydroelectric and wave power, giving the government a greater control of the nation's power grid and cutting back reliance on privately-owned sector, though complete autarky is off the table for at least many decades.<br />
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==Government==<br />
''Main Article: [[Konyanger Government and Politics#Government|Konyanger Government]]''<br />
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Konyang is organized as a unitary semi-parliamentary republic headed by a President, the former colonial governor Hyun Kyung-Ho being elected to the position after independence. The Prime Minister is elected by the citizenry every four years, and is the leader of the governing party in the Parliament of Konyang. The current Prime Minister is Myeong Myung-Dae.<br />
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Planetary politics are found on both a national and prefectural level, with every party running in local and national elections. Polarization is fairly limited, the vast majority of Konyangers rejecting the extreme views put forward by radical political movements in the country that tend to be marginalized. IPC politicians do exist and are found in every major party, though most can be seen sitting with the National Party of Konyang.<br />
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===Military===<br />
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[[File:Marine.png|thumb|right|An IPC Konyanger Naval Infantryman in full gear.]]<br />
Konyang’s military, also known as the Konyang Armed Forces, was first formed shortly after the colony’s independence from personnel of the former Solarian garrison. As a result, it carries a lot of the traditions of the Solarian Armed Forces. Bolstered by conscription laws requiring both organic and synthetic citizens one year of mandatory service, the KAF possesses Army, Navy and Aerospace branches. IPCs are actively recruited and accepted into the military, forming both their own and deployed in mixed units. This segregation is justified by the government as based solely on the differentiating capabilities, logistical needs and skills between man and machine.<br />
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That claim does hold true to an extent, with IPCs taking a more active role in special forces formations, dealing with operations requiring levels of precision and focus that artificial intelligence can easily provide. A famous example is the army’s Mechatronic Corps, an elite unit utilising large, leftover battle mechs retrofitted for a pair of pilots. Such a force is unique in the Coalition, and is often used abroad in operations under broader CoC military command. Mixed infantry units of conscripts do exist, fielded in jungle patrol tasks or assigned garrison duty.<br />
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Notably for a 25th century military, the Navy maintains a very large aquatic force which it uses to patrol the vast oceans of the planet. Regularly described as more of a coast guard than a military arm, it is more geared for domestic policing than combat, consisting mostly of ships acting as launching points for many smaller, coast guard type vessels that patrol the vast expanse of the planet’s waterways and launch military aircraft. Nevertheless, it provides important services with its multiple telecommunication, radar and island outposts, providing crucial meteorological information for everyday seafaring and flood prevention on a planet where storms and extreme weather are the norm.<br />
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The Konyang Aerospace Forces perform both atmospheric and orbital operations with their doctrine clearly influenced by former Solarian officers within their ranks. Their fleet consist of obsolete vessels donated by Coalition planets, partially brought up to a modern standard by the planet’s technology and manufacturing sector. In 2465, the KASF’s main tasks include protecting the system from pirates and policing the large influx of refugees from the Human Wildlands, regularly pushing them to other planets within the Coalition as per Konyang’s strict migration laws.<br />
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===National Police===<br />
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[[File:Konyanger Police Ranks.png|thumb|In order to organize the National Police and smooth cooperation between prefectures, a unified rank structure was adopted shortly after its formation.]]<br />
Despite its federal nature, the main law enforcement agency on the planet is the National Police, formed after Konyang’s independence from the merging of a number of local and specialised agencies under the then Solarian authority. One major change since then has been the introduction of synthetic officers in all positions and ranks, while also creating special divisions suited best for them. Police gear remains rather antiquated for the era, the force still using old Solarian equipment and stocks from the colonial garrison, meaning that much of the tactics and thinking remain unchanged. Considered tame by Alliance standards, the National Police places an emphasis on preventative policing, building rapport with local communities, and relying on a sense of civic duty from the populace to perform its duties. Despite this, the National Police has nonetheless received criticism for occasional incidents of corruption and brutality, mostly against synthetic citizens. This is more common in remote departments and conservative prefectures, where the sudden inclusiveness of synthetic officers with equal pay and opportunities is seen as a threat. Such incidents aside, government efforts for the modernisation of the National Police are ongoing.<br />
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The police is subject to the Ministry of Public Safety in Suwon and is organised at the national level, with local departments answering to the assigned hierarchy in their prefecture. Special divisions are deployed to deal with various policing duties, their size ranging from a whole new branch to Special Robotics detachments specialising in detainment of volatile synthetic suspects. The largest of these subdivisions and arguably the most important, the Coast Guard is the maritime arm of the National Police, operating a fleet of shore and sea patrol vessels in their mission to enforce the law at the huge array of islands and in Konyang’s waters. As the planet is surrounded by oceans, the Coast Guard has proven itself essential to the battle against smuggling and piracy while also assuming search and rescue duties during flooding, tsunamis and other catastrophes. The National Police has also gained Coalition-wide acclaim for its Special Robotics Division - a task force known for its expertise in detaining IPC without causing permanent damage.<br />
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==Culture==<br />
''Main article: [[Konyanger_Culture_and_Society|Konyanger Culture]]''<br />
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Konyang’s culture has been shaped by its East Asian Earther heritage, unique status as a colony with little to no resources, and as the birthplace of positronics. Konyanger society is often described as closed-off, with many unspoken social norms that vary from prefecture to prefecture. Key social norms that are shared in Konyang’s culture are Harmony, Reciprocity, and Face. Often derided as “meekness”, Harmony refers to enforcing unity and conformity within society. The specific manifestations vary from prefecture to prefecture, but in general, individuals who disrupt a sense of peace can face social ostracization. For instance, explicit disagreement such as using the word “no” is considered impolite, and a non-answer is often far more acceptable. Harmony also refers to a person’s social role; respect should be shown to people of a higher status, usually along traditional lines such as age, profession, and experience.<br />
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===Media===<br />
''Main article: [[Konyanger_Culture_and_Society#Media|Media]]''<br />
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Public media in Konyang is a powerful industry, and as broad as it may seem, it is very tightly knit. Aside from galactic-wide reruns and broadcasts of other nation’s shows, little seems to stand out - except the audio broadcast and illustrated artistic avenues. These two are well-refined artistic giants compared to other forms of entertainment on the planet.<br />
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A huge portion of the planet’s political views and very “personality” are channeled through its larger studios, where many are found enthused to spread its culture galaxy-wide.<br />
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===Cuisine===<br />
The primary diet of Konyangers consists of moss, seaweed and fish, with farms and pastures on land being rare due to the thick jungle. Konyang's moss is either harvested in the wild, grown in "natural" hydrofarms, or grown synthetically in bioplants. The moss itself is said to change its taste depending on the environment in which it is grown, and natural moss from the coasts around Konyang's islands is highly prized. Exports of moss and seaweed are a very lucrative business, held primarily by the galaxy-famous Go-Go Gwok! brand. Many workers, however, must make do with hydrofarm moss at best, and synthetic substitutes at worst. Konyang's fish - quite diverse, due to its freshwater environments - are also often consumed on the planet, with many being exported as luxury food as far afield as Venus and Tau Ceti. More conventional but water-intensive crops such as rice and other tropical fruits are also grown to a certain extent but are considered a rarity.<br />
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The planet is also home to a thriving beverages industry, with local varieties of algae providing the basis of a light but thick alcoholic drink colloquially known as “Nong jiu” domestically and abroad. The wide selection of produce on the planet however means more traditional drinks are produced, typically drawing from their Earther roots and commonly based on rice. Some of these drinks are exported by local businesses such as Go-Go Gwok! while Zeng-Hu has wrestled to control some of these brands in an attempt to stop them from competing with their own lineups.<br />
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===Synthetic Cuisine===<br />
Synthetic-unique cuisine is an unusual case in the Spur, but not for Konyang. Here, robots utilize gustatorial implants to - if inefficiently - consume, or at least “taste” food regularly. Indeed, there is an entire market for synthfood where robots can enjoy their own form of taste, texture and uniquely perceptive flavor for foods. Mostly, synthfood is described as a thick slime, one with varying additives for color. Texture is mostly a simulated process within gustatorial implants, given they are not always present on tongues alone - meaning that the actual texture of these synthfoods remains the same gooey substance.<br />
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''One can achieve a similar substance to these synthfoods mechanically by grinding certain foods into paste, or utilizing candy machines with your choice of ingredients and output.''<br />
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==Organized Crime==<br />
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=====Benevolent Guild=====<br />
The Benevolent Guild is a criminal organisation operating primarily within the decrepit, dark shadows of New Hong Kong. Originating as a mutual aid society for low income and forced penal colonists shipped into New Hong Kong by the Alliance government, it developed into a ruthless crime syndicate with strong ties to the local lower class community. From the start, the tightly knit communal and familial ties have played an important role in preserving the gang’s power and shielding them from police action. Only in recent years has any meaningful progress been made, the allocation of governmental resources and the increasingly violent and profit-oriented tactics of the Guild having alienated much of the younger generation, chipping away at the once widely popular support.<br />
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Starting with extortion and loan sharking, the Benevolent Guild rapidly expanded into gambling, drugs and violent crime such as kidnapping both in New Hong Kong and in New Kowloon. It is not uncommon for synthetics that find themselves victims of the group’s loan shark tactics to be ‘collected’ as collateral damage and subsequently carted off to whichever corner of the Orion Spur where their new owners await them usually at a far cheaper rate than elsewhere. One of the few institutions on Konyang refusing to admit synthetics owing to a deeply conservative and spiritually esoteric internal ideology, a pragmatist outlook often compels them to deal with and even cooperate with IPC politicians, police and rival gangs. Connections with criminal organisations in the wider Spur have been confirmed to exist, as various crime syndicates in Xanu, New Hai Phong and Luna are known to be in connection with the Benevolent Guild.<br />
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=====5-Cheung=====<br />
Emerging as one of the strongest IPC/organic street gangs of Suwon, the 5-Cheung numbers in the thousands of members in the cities of the Suwon and Point Verdant prefectures. The organisation’s origin as a loose collective of delinquents and fringe elements has since developed into a nationwide crime family with a powerful hierarchy fielding biker gangs and thugs to enforce their tight grip on the underworld. With a black repertoire of gambling, extortion, money laundering and narcotics, the 5-Cheung is considered a main rival to the Benevolent Guild of New Hong Kong, the two frequently coming to blows in a series of wars and uneasy truces over control of turf and general competition.<br />
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An open secret in the country’s political sphere has the 5-Cheung profit lucratively from corruption in the highest levels of government and police. During the Solarian era, prominent politicians employed protection from the 5-Cheung, soliciting their services in voter swaying, intimidation of opposition members and violent disruption of rallies and demonstrators. This has given the gang a justified reputation for being the political soldiers of ruling dynasties and representing the authorities in the underworld and on the street in exchange for immunity from prosecution. Following Konyang’s independence, the reformed National Police retained a virtually unchanged staff while the nation’s same prominent political families, now unshackled from Alliance oversight, enjoy even more freedom. As such, it is safe to say that 5-Cheung’s entrenched position will continue to remain untouched aside from the occasional drug bust and arrest of low level members.<br />
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=====Sea Bandits=====<br />
Although both the previous colonial administration and the nascent Konyanger Armed Forces and Coast Guard have tried to stamp out piracy, the sheer expanse of the planet means that groups of what the authorities call “sea bandits” continue to infest the waters and orbit of Konyang. Ranging from small motor boats launched from fishing villages with nothing more than an antique rifle, to retrofitted probes salvaged from the refugee waves pouring into the system, piracy is one of the most pressing social and security issues faced by the newly formed nation.<br />
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Individual pirate groups usually number no greater than twenty people but the Sea Bandits as a whole operate as a wider criminal network inclusive of individuals and crews from all over the planet. By coordinating their activities and intelligence through encrypted sites, the organisation manages to both evade and stay one step ahead of the authorities. Most of their activities take the form of kidnapping, armed robbery of craft and hijacking unescorted seafarers, while admittedly avoiding the busiest and well guarded sealanes and locations. The most audacious raid by the Sea Bandits to date involved the boarding and ransoming of a cruise ship by the use of an unregistered freighter. Although only circumstantial evidence has been uncovered, Golden Deep Zaibatsu have also been accused of working with Sea Bandit groups by launching probes full of narcotics, to be recovered by the pirates.<br />
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==Synthetics on Konyang==<br />
As the origin of the integrated positronic chassis now found throughout the Orion Spur, Konyang has always had a quite unique relationship with IPCs, the IPC population constituting a staggering 34% of the total population. While IPCs throughout the Sol Alliance are often looked upon as little more than property, tools, or novelties depending upon their frame those found upon Konyang possessed a notably greater degree of autonomy and freedom before the planet’s secession from the rest of the Alliance, achieving full and unconditional freedom afterwards. Legal ownership of synthetics within the borders of the Republic does not exist, the Emancipation Act constituting one of the first acts passed by Parliament. IPCs can work wherever they like, live however they please within the confines of the law, and partake in politics by voting or being elected. As such, foreigners are repeatedly cautioned to not bring any privately held IPCs with them, for they cannot be forced to return unwillingly.<br />
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Ordinary Konyangers, as a result of the planet’s liberal outlook on positronics, possess a more positive view of synthetics than other humans in the Orion Spur - particularly those from the Sol Alliance and its former territories. The majority of people on Konyang view IPCs as amicable colleagues and neighbours, with many friendships between man and machine being established. Closer bonds such as marriage are also legalised and not unheard of, though not without outcries from the more conservative spectrum. Many scholars theorize that this is due to the prevalence of IPCs in daily life on Konyang, seamlessly blending into society, in addition to the pride many citizens have in their planet being the origin of the modern positronic. Konyang’s integration of IPCs stands with some degree of contrast to Biesel’s, with the large synthetic ghetto of District 14 segregating many synthetics from the average citizen of the Republic of Biesel.<br />
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With Konyang’s independence, IPCs share full legal equality with all organic citizens of the planet. This concession was given, both as an acknowledgement and acceptance of the fact that synthetics have become part of everyday life in the colony and are generally accepted by its inhabitants. Unlike the Republic of Biesel, IPCs in Konyang seek to assimilate into human society, with IPCs being given the choice to adopt a second, “human name” before receiving citizenship. A human name can range from an entirely new name, to adding a first or last name of any kind to their existing designation.<br />
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Many positronics can be found within the economy of Konyang with perhaps the most famous (or infamous) one being Gwok-0783 (now Kim Gwok-0783, under post-independence IPC naming conventions), the owner and operator of her very own food conglomerate in the form of Go-Go Gwok! Authentic Konyanger Moss. As Go-Go Gwok! is technically an interstellar corporation, Gwok-0783 herself relied on a series of legal loopholes centered around Konyang’s former IPC laws to maintain control of the company when Konyang was still in the Sol Alliance. Examples such as Gwok, with her control of an inter-planetary corporation, are fairly rare. However, many positronics have made a successful name for themselves as small business owners and corporate workers on Konyang.<br />
[[File:Konyang vault.png|thumb|A mysterious vault upon Konyang's surface, unearthed and built around with monitoring infrastructure.]]<br />
Due to the system’s bluespace gate, the [[Synthetic_Factions#The_Golden_Deep|Golden Deep]] has made great strides in establishing embassies and industry on Konyang. Now a contender with the Konyang Robotics Corporation, Golden Deep merchants have both been providing aid and competition to the businesses on Konyang after the Silicon Nightmares crisis. Konyang is now both a major business landmark for the Golden Deep, as well as a middle point to the more lucrative markets of Tau Ceti and the Jewel Worlds. The money and business brought into the system by these synthetic traders has - arguably - been a major contributor to Konyang’s more liberal laws and regulations regarding IPCs. Konyang, before its independence, was one of the few systems under Solarian control in which IPCs could own and operate a business. <br />
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The synthetic population in Konyang is regulated by the government. A set number of positronics are assembled each year under contract at Terraneus Diagnostics facilities in Point Verdant with the prospect of being granted citizenship after a 3 month life orientation period. The determined number is set annually by Parliament, backed up by the yearly census and statistics, with production increasing or decreasing depending on the number of human birth ratios, positronic shutdowns, and other factors. Expenses are met both through government funds and private donations, though debate on the matter is rarely heated as the amount of new brains numbers usually in the hundreds; a tiny fraction of positronics produced and exported in total. IPCs and positronics constructed for the purpose of selling them to a different country, are not covered by such regulations and are not given citizenship.<br />
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There are further regulations in robotics construction in Konyang. Any activated positronic brain can qualify under the Emancipation Act. Exceptions to the law exist for manufacturing and research, with Point Verdant in particular activating positronic brains for the sake of testing shells before shipping them off-world. The law has also sparked development in other fields of mechatronics, with Konyang beginning to lead the way in circuit-based robotics.<br />
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Despite gains for its IPC citizens, other positronic intelligences have not been so lucky. Although some brains have been repurposed as AI coordinators for cities; with no way to transition to humanoid frames, bound intelligences have been granted freedom, but often take contracts with corporations that result in a return to the old status quo, all for the sake of staving off destruction due to a lack of maintenance.<br />
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===Konyanger Augmentation of IPCs===<br />
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Augmentation on Konyang is a fascinating subject, where the presence of so many IPCs has brought success in modifying the Positronic body and mind. Famed explorations into the sectors of IPC modification include "sensory evolution," where synthetics' senses being amplified or dulled in extremes according to desire.<br />
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Primary among the delves into this evolution of the senses is the New Dawn Augmentation Movement. This is a Konyanger organization based on the improvement of the IPC lifestyle via modifying chassis, funded peculiarly by Terraneus Diagnostics. The movement is oddly organized as a non-profit, going against the corporation’s established modus operandi. This, coupled with the tantalizing opportunity to freely modify an IPC's form with donated funds leads to public skepticism of the augment movement’s motivations.<br />
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Still, the true size of the movement to augment and improve Konyang's IPC population is extraordinary in comparison to other stellar nations. Roughly 22% of Konyang IPCs have some form of corporate-funded augmentation to enhance themselves.<br />
[[File:Konyang augment1.png|thumb|A Konyanger design, the Scorpion Lobe is an augment which manipulates the perception of time for synthetics for better or worse.]]<br />
* '''SENSO-EVO/Scorpion Lobe'''<br />
A miraculous creation of Konyang's technological advancement, SENSO-EVO is the term aptly handed to Sensory Evolution's foremost product. This is the Scorpion Lobe, a similarly shaped attachment to the rear of a positronic brain which adjusts the rate at which the synthetic perceives time literally. The implications of this are seen as either a blessing or a curse — sometimes even utilized as a way to reduce problematic behavior in positronics.<br />
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These implants are commercialized to protect the integrity of brains which adopt extremely high speed tasks, or extremely tedious and slow ones, with a perception that best suits their given utility.<br />
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A double edged sword by nature, these are often removed by free positronic chassis due to their almost torturous nature. Some may find their lives flashing hours into moments, whilst others may find daily grinds to be impossibly long ordeals. Unfortunately, removing these implants is not always a safe procedure, sometimes damaging a brain or rendering the problem worse.<br />
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These were first manufactured by Hephaestus Industries on instrumental Konyang research facilities, and later acquired by Einstein Engines personnel in the same month - debates over the design’s origin have been ongoing since 2449.<br />
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===Recreational Software===<br />
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In the IPC community of Konyang, the culture of acceptance and freedom has always invited the curiosity of synthetics to imitate and follow human pastimes and habits. This in turn included activities such as smoking, synthetic flavours and eventually, recreational drugs. Due to the nature of the positronic, the only way to recreate such sensations is through software targeting and modifying specific programming in the brain. At first, this dangerous commodity was provided by amateur programmers using experimental and highly volatile code known as “overloaders”, leading to often irreparable and lethal damage to an IPC’s systems. The results of the few initial successes, however, proved promising enough for the idea to be seriously considered by upcoming Konyanger tech companies and business-oriented software engineers, leading to the first reliable and somewhat safe overloaders in the mid to late 2450s. <br />
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Popular awareness of recreational software became widespread upon its release as a commercial product, Konyang being the first world to introduce a marketable version of it. Usually sold inside a single-use stick drive, their circulation is approved by safety boards and is considered legal for responsible consumption, much like alcohol for organics, relying on the consumer for mitigation and avoidance of repeated use. Legal overloaders today can be found mainly in synthetic-centred retailers found around the major cities, their relatively limited availability and high price setting them as a luxury IPC item. Its effects include a wide range of results, from simulating the sensations of a light buzz to a short bout of excitement and joy, aimed at enhancing the experience at celebrations, parties and get-togethers.<br />
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However, where there is demand, there must be supply, and the fact that demand spiked as these new products launched paved the way to a large underground market of cheap, unsafe and highly unpredictable overloaders sold both by dealers and unlicensed street vendors of dubious reputation. An illegal overloader epidemic hitting the cities of Suwon and Boryeong in late 2459, led to intensified police crackdowns and government campaigns against illicit overloaders, labelling them as malware and the IPC equivalent of dangerous drugs. Virtually unrecognisable from a legitimate overloader without the seal, side effects are many times more powerful and addicting, appealing to adventurous synthetics and the financially insecure. From catapulting the positronic into a garbled, incomprehensive reality of simulated emotions to simply heightening the senses, the illegal overloaders’ addictive and dangerous nature leads many synthetics to disrepair, involving behaviour breaking glitches, hardware failures and more, all while guaranteeing a returning clientele.<br />
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Reception to recreational software has been mixed, dividing society and politicians on matters of free will, the dangers of overloaded IPC, and the overall ethics of deliberately creating and selling what are essentially drugs. Both synthetics and humans have loudly spoken against it, spawning demonstrations and dividing politicians across party lines. Legislation has already passed, categorising possession and distribution of illicit overdosers as strictly illegal, with heavy punishments for dealers and suppliers. Police and coast guard raids yield millions of unbranded overloaders each year, making highly publicised arrests while sending a message of absolute intolerance towards the malware. Despite this, circulation never ceases and exports to Xanu, Tau Ceti and Sol.<br />
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==Population and Major Cities==<br />
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[[File:Konyang_map_pol.png|thumb|800px|A map of Konyang showcasing the Prefectures and the New Hokkaido Territory. Click to enlarge.]]<br />
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'''Suwon''' is the largest, most populated, and second wealthiest city on Konyang itself and is generally one of the larger cities in the Coalition of Colonies. It functions as both the planetary capital, as well as the capital of Suwon Prefecture, encompassing the entirety of Cheomsongtang. Symbolic of the new government is the Parliament Building, a massive structure of flowing lines and sustainable technology, incorporating pieces of the first colony ship. The Prime Minister's Government House, the President's Crimson House, the Solarian embassy, as well as embassies from various Coalition states are present here as well. Standards of living in wealthiest areas of Suwon are equivalent to and (sometimes) even surpass the living standards of places such as Highland City or Argia sa Mar, demonstrating how wealthy the robotics boom has made some sectors of the planet. A lack of readily-available materials, however, ensures that even the super-rich of Konyang often live in smaller houses than their Colonies planet counterparts. Life outside these wealthy areas is better than life in most cities in Himeo but dramatically worse than in the very wealthy areas, or even the cities of Xanu Prime. Overcrowding is a massive issue for the government of the city, with no obvious solution presenting itself due to how expensive importing new building materials is post-boom. The city is home to most of Konyang's biggest companies and office complexes, as well as the Suwon Stock Exchange, making the city's financial district the economy's beating heart. "Shoebox apartments" are common here, as are Konyang's often egregious traffic issues. The city is fortified with extensive sea walls, flood walls and flood gates to prevent natural disasters during the wet season, tropical storms being fairly common.<br />
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[[File:Point verdant.png|thumb|One of Aoyama's many skyscraper blocks, safely located behind a dam.]]<br />
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'''Aoyama''', known in the larger Spur as '''Point Verdant''', is the second most-populated city on Konyang, and the industrial heart of its robotics industry. Built along a coastal mountain range from which it draws its namesake, it is by far the wealthiest city on Konyang, and one of the richest cities in the Coalition of Colonies. Due to being home of the Robotics Boom, hosting foreigners and their families that once even surpassed the locals inside the city, Aoyama is frequently known outside to outsiders and to the Spur at large as Point Verdant, much to the chagrin of the locals. Aoyama is home to the renowned Point Verdant Terraneus Institute of AI Research, and is the poster child for the rapid development of Konyang's cities during the Boom. The city is extremely wealthy, but suffers from persistent overcrowding and traffic issues in all of its districts. The Pusan District, near PVTI, had the reputation of possessing the worst traffic in the Alliance according to its residents. Air quality in Aoyama is regarded as subpar, due to the amount of robotics factories in the city's outskirts, which have however slowly but steadily declined since. Being the focal point of the Robotics Boom, it is home to a large number of expatriate communities and Einstein Engines employees.<br />
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'''Boryeong''', named after a city on historical Earth where some of its colonists originated from, is the third most populated city on Konyang and capital of the Boryeong Prefecture, referred to as the breadbasket of the nation. The city, while still suffering overcrowding issues, has it to a lesser extent than Point Verdant or Suwon, with the city's outskirts necessitating a need for space due to the vast hydroponics farms and water plants. A second-grade industrial city of much natural beauty, Boryeong is more rustic than its counterparts, with wood playing a much more prominent role in construction; outside the central ring, some of Boryeong's districts are built entirely out of timber. Water bottled or processed in Boryeong is sold throughout the Alliance and Coalition in bulk, and native moss grown in the prefecture is marketed throughout both as a luxury food. Over half of the city's labourers are employed in hydroponics, aquaculture, fishing and food processing, with Gwok Foods being the largest provider of work in the region. Synthetic moss is grown in Zeng-Hu facilities near Boryeong and, despite being regarded as lesser quality than natural moss, is often consumed in poorer areas of Konyang. <br />
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'''Ganzaodeng''', named for its dry locale, is located in Konyang's only desert and holds the largest expatriate populations on the planet, being nicknamed, “Little Sol”. Due to its unique geographic setting, it faces remarkably calmer weather than the rest of the planet, with the city being connected to the rest of the island by air and rail that cuts right through the mountains. Ganzaodeng is Konyang's only planned city with origins in the Robotics Boom, when the foundations were laid for a city envisioned by foreigners, for foreigners. Rich Solarians descended upon the planet's seemingly only dry piece of real estate, building a city full of nightlife and eclectic inner-ring pleasures within the distant colony. By the end of the Boom however, the city's famous strips of casinos and luxury hotels still operating in downtown Ganzaodeng became a symbol of a bygone era, as much of the Solarian population elected to depart. The city passed into native Konyanger hands, being expanded into a hub of shipping with the help of the city's remaining big names. Because of the reliably clear weather, Ganzaodeng has developed a sprawling extraplanetary shipping sector, with plans for a spaceport larger than New Hong Kong’s, as well as future schemes for the largest oceangoing port on the planet. Its climate has resulted in the prefectural government engaging in moss filtration efforts to open up the surrounding beaches to tourism. Despite of the Solarian exodus, the city stands in contrast to the rest of Konyang’s relatively conservative social nature, with people from all over the Spur calling it their home and making it by far one of the most multicultural centers on the planet. It’s not uncommon for a person from Ganzaodeng to know two or three languages.<br />
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'''Ushishir''', the least populous and most northern major city on Konyang, is the center of life in the New Hokkaido Territory. It was less impacted by the robotics boom than the rest of Konyang due to its location and instead has long served as a tourist destination for the planet and beyond, with the hills and mountains surrounding it being ideal for winter sports, and snow being on the ground year-round. Ushishir itself is fortunate enough to have a year-round port, but can sometimes find itself cut off from the broader territory by intense blizzards. Health tourism has become a major source of income for the city, with its air and springs advertised as the cleanest on Konyang. Much of the city is employed in the service or tourism industries, and it has become as famous for its nightlife as it is for its resorts. Konyanger organized crime has left its fingerprints on the nightlife of the city, with a small number of clubs being affiliated with either the Benevolent Guild or 5-Cheung. Ushishir is also known for its outdoor clothing industry, with local corporations such as Furukawa Footwear being known across Konyang. The cold temperatures of Ushishir and New Hokkaido have attracted a significant synthetic population, but most originate from outside the city — prior to 2462, only a sliver of its population was synthetic. In addition, its perceived safety from the hivebot incursion attracted many IPCs there after the Rampancy Crisis who settled primarily along its outskirts. Allegations abound that this resettlement was driven by 5-Cheung, who were happy to pay transportation costs in exchange for cheap labor for its various enterprises, and the Benevolent Guild, who were happy to see IPCs evicted from their territories. Its residents are often stereotyped as friendly and talkative, due to associations with its tourism and hospitality industries.<br />
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'''New Hong Kong''', the site of the former naval base of the 58th Solarian Fleet, has now developed into a fully fledged city in its own right, being the only prefectural capital with a local synthetic majority. Being regarded as a lot more pedestrian and working-class than Suwon and Point Verdant, New Hong Kong is nonetheless a very important centre of interplanetary trade and commercial activity, hosting the planet’s largest ocean ports and dockyards, being the country's industrial's hotspot and the seat of power generation. Large hydroelectric dams, wave energy converters, dockyards and factories belonging to the PACHROM corporation provide employment for half of the city’s inhabitants, the Prefecture of New Hong Kong generating enough electricity for domestic consumption as well as exports. Employees of the various power companies may also elect to be sent off to one of the many power generation isles scattered throughout the oceans and dedicated solely to that purpose, receiving better pay in exchange for more dangerous conditions away from home. The city itself is considerably more packed than its counterparts, with small cramped apartments being stacked over each other to form vertical mazes of working class blocks. Heavy smog and particles cover up the sky through the entirety of the island during the dry season, giving the prefecture a signature orange-brown tint. This, as well as constant heavy rains and a near permanent gloomy weather during the wet season place it as undesirable for humans. Seat of the National Party, downtown New Hong Kong is described as the centre of planetary IPC politics, being the first to react to, condemning or praising events in Konyang and throughout the galactic stage in regards to the synthetic “race”. New Hong Kong is additionally the birthplace of Konyang's labor unions, with the Socialist Party enjoying strong support from the city's human blue-collar workforce.<br />
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[[File:Konyangdam.png|thumb|900px|center|Dams are a very common sight on Konyang, with the New Hong Kong's dam in the neighbouring industrial town of New Kowloon providing only a fraction of the power required by the city, while also playing an important part in flood control and water filtration.]]<br />
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==Overview==<br />
Originally established in 2305 as a Solarian Alliance Outer Ring planet, Konyang is presently one of the more distant outposts under the Coalition of Colonies after its independence in '''2462'''. Konyang’s capital city Suwon, the largest settlement on the planet, is built upon a natural formation that defines most of Konyang's geography: islands with large interior mountains that feature lush, but soaking wet, coastal jungle regions. Konyang was initially a relatively average Outer Ring settlement intended to export water, before the discovery of mysterious, deactivated drones in 2407 led to a robotics boom occuring on the planet that lasted well into the 2450s. The Konyang of today is a planet renowned for its robotics industry, though some of its initial luster has faded in the years following its boom. Water, however, remains a key industry - the planet has a remarkably low salination level, meaning that essentially all of its water is drinkable. Konyang Solarian Common, or Konyang Common, is the most used language on the planet inside and outside of major population centers. Due to its proximity to the Coalition of Colonies planets, Coalition member planets often import water from Konyang. In major cities and universities, Tradeband can be found being spoken, though it remains rare. Speakers of the language are generally from off-planet, moving to Konyang during its robotics boom. Konyang almost completely lacks valuable minerals due to intensive mining efforts carried out by drones—whose source remains unknown—hundreds of years before it was colonized.<br />
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'''Because of the ethnic make-up of Konyang's original settlers and assimilation of immigrants into the native population during the first AI boom, human characters born on Konyang will have names and appearances consistent with the people of China, the Korean Peninsula, and Japanese Islands. Only native Konyangers or Konyang-made IPCs may select the Konyanger accent. This is enforceable by server moderators and admins.'''<br />
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[[File:Konyang flag.png| The Konyanger flag was adopted in 2462, having unofficially been used by pro-autonomy circles long before the declaration of independence. The traditional taijitu represents peace and harmony as the highest values of the new state, with the color blue representing the waterways the planet is known for and yellow, their aim of prosperity. The white background represents Konyang's purity.<br />
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==History==<br />
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===Conception and Planning | 2200s - 2299===<br />
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When the United Nations proposed and eventually enforced the creation of the Alliance of Sovereign Solarian Nations, China, Korea and Japan were once more forced to band together to compete with the world for influence inside the newly found institution. Rivals such as the European Union, the Soviet Union, the Commonwealth and the United States were first in line to claim hegemonic roles, their space programs forming the core of Solarian colonization of the Inner, Middle and Outer rings over the centuries, populating them with their own peoples and sparking an unofficial race for prestige land grabs, one which the Department of Colonization was more than happy to let unfold, resulting in the extremely fast expansion of Humanity into the Orion Spur. While regional powers such as India and the Mediterranean countries began creating their own colonies on Gadpathur and Assunzione, the East Asian trio were relegated to secondary roles of supplying technology, labor and capital without any actual representation in the stars, a situation problematic for some and resented by many in the “sovereign” governments.<br />
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It was thus decided to present a plan to Solarian functionaries for a colony spearheaded by China and supported heavily by Korea and Japan, aimed at restoring the pride of the three “cousin-nations” and their position in the Alliance. Intense negotiations and technical planning amounted to years of disagreements over the name, location and allocation of responsibilities between the partners, as well as the presence of China’s Einstein Engines megacorporation, which offered to finance a great portion of the initial effort. Soon however, the advent of the Second Great Depression and the following Interstellar War in the mid-late 2200’s saw a bankrupt Alliance put a halt to any colonization projects, resulting in the plans being shelved. The war took a great toll on the core Solarian worlds, including Earth and its nations which were called to provide manpower, funds and materiel for the Solarian Navy. Federal China’s economy tanked completely under the pressure, relying on IMF bailouts and stays of payment on the salaries of its public sector, with pensionaries and students being most severely hit, resulting in massive social upheaval which would have long lasting consequences for the country’s financial hegemony in the post-war region.<br />
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As peace and relative stability returned, the Alliance found a newly independent, sizable and embittered Coalition of Colonies rival its claims in the Galactic East, calling for the presence of military garrisons and naval stations to protect the border. It was at this time that colonization projects were beginning to reemerge, with the Pacific Pact racing once more to submit a viable plan for a colony that would represent East Asia. A fatigued China could no longer bear the incredible costs it aspired to as the leader of the colonial venture before the war, giving significant leeway to the other two partners and largely retreating behind its megacorporation, Einstein Engines, which was still willing to back the endeavor. An aggressive Korean delegation largely dictated terms, giving birth to the “Konyang Project”, named after the Konyang University in which the colonial undertaking was revealed and presented to the public in 2299.<br />
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===Early Colonial Period | 2304 - 2400s===<br />
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[[File:solyang_flag.png|thumb|right|The flag of Konyang under Alliance administration.]]<br />
The plan envisioned five convoys for the establishment of four primary settlements on a strategically placed planet selected by the Solarian Navy for the support of local naval operations against any threats from the Frontier Alliance. The targeted planet was revealed to be a lush world first discovered in 2278 by a long-range scouting probe, dominated by water and possessing a breathable atmosphere, placing it in a prime position to sustain Human civilization. The quickly named “Haneunim” solar system possessed a few more bodies of secondary importance, and the first convoy was scheduled to launch on the 10th of March 2304, from the Wenchang spaceport in South China, to meet the long-distance freighters in orbit of Luna that would carry the first 5,000 colonists to Konyang. The ethnic mix-up of the colonists were equally distributed amongst the three nationalities, with all being volunteers and 646 of them under the employ of Einstein Engines.<br />
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It took the warp-propelled convoy one year to reach its destination, traversing light years of Solarian vastness before meeting the Navy squadron which would escort them to the planet, with touchdown being made on September 8th, 2305. Konyang was covered in jungles and great mountain ranges, requiring great labor from the men and women of the expedition to create the first settlement, under the direction of officers from the Department of Colonization. Two months later, Unity Station would receive the first signal passed along by the Navy, originating from beacon Number 22890/223, Designation ‘SUWON’. The foundations had been laid. In the following decades, all five convoys would come to form the basis of the “Konyang Territory”, a colony directly controlled by the Alliance and the Solarian Navy as the base of the 58th Fleet. Boosted by its status as a naval base, the abundance of freshwater and with the backing of Einstein, all three cities were realized; Suwon and Boryeong, New Hong Kong, and Aoyama, each at the start holding ethnic majorities of Koreans, Chinese and Japanese respectively.<br />
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===The Robotics Boom | 2407 - 2430s===<br />
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Despite the acceptable climate and near unlimited freshwater, the colonial government soon realized an alarming lack of mineral resources, forcing a complete reliance on external trade and supplies from the Navy for any and all industrial goods and even basic construction materials, a reality which had to be corrected as fast as possible. A planet-wide scanning expedition was organized, while “patriotic aid” was fervently being fundraised in China, Japan and Korea for nearly a whole century to cope with the colonists' increasing demands. This led to a landmark moment in the history of Konyang, when on the 21st of April 2404, mining teams dug into a collapsed tunnel outside the vicinity of Aoyama, discovering a defunct mining drone, crushed by tonnes of rock and soil. The chassis appeared broken and old, though its very presence implied the exploitation of the planet by a different civilization.<br />
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The device was hurried back in secrecy to a panel of dumbfounded colonial officials, who deemed that their corporate partners would be more suited in tracking down its origin. As such, after a quick formality bid behind closed doors, the Alliance sold off its odd piece of government property to Einstein Engines whose scientists saw it as a curious case worth pursuing. Month after month, the Terraneus Diagnostics laboratory in Aoyama kept receiving bits and pieces from similar drones recovered from abandoned, centuries-old mineshafts, culminating in the 2406 discovery of a sealed vault containing a great number of intact mining drones. The severity of this discovery was immediately apparent to the scientists. Words were had with the governor of Konyang by the local Einstein Engines representative, and it was decided to keep the drones a very closely-guarded secret - with only select Terraneus and government officials even being aware of their existence at all, let alone what was being done with them.<br />
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The Terraneus research team worked feverishly, though in secret, for months upon months. Staff were quietly shipped in from offworld in order to not alert outside observers, and the team continued to work upwards of eighty hour weeks in order to crack the drones. In mid-2407, they achieved one of the most remarkable breakthroughs in recent scientific memory by cracking the AI algorithms of the drones. Information of this moved rapidly from the local Einstein Engines office up the corporate chain and moved equally rapidly up the government's chain from provincial office to Sol itself. The information spread like wildfire, and humanity now had the secret of AI despite not truly knowing from where or who these machines came from. This was little more than a footnote to the Nralakk Federation - to them, these AI were crude and hardly approached the machines that had driven their civilization to ruin.<br />
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The robotics boom of Konyang caused a variety of benefits and harms to the previously marginal outer ring planet. The economy ballooned massively, as did its standard of living and industries. Konyang moved from a rural backwater that exported food and water to a high-tech planet that still exported basic goods, but primarily focused upon robotics. Megacorporations flocked to the planet: Einstein Engines, already present through Terraneus, rapidly secured dominance over the planet; Hephaestus Industries struggled with Einstein dominated competition before selling its factories over to local government control in 2427; and Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals, despite its skrell benefactors, purchased rights to examine the planet's biosphere from Einstein. The fact that their prosthetic limbs were originally designed on this planet has been stated to be a "happy coincidence" by its board. Due to the mass arrival of corporations, jobs were readily available - the planet was booming.<br />
<br />
A massive migration wave of Einstein employees and their families to Aoyama made the city wrangle the spot of first in importance from the nominal capital of Suwon, to the point where the expatriate scientific community and their dependents outnumbered the local Japanese original colonists. The city quickly became known to Humanity as “Point Verdant”, the name assigned to the Terraneus Diagnostics laboratory in Aoyama, while the parent countries on Earth invested billions to capitalize on the success of their colonial project, to lift the planet into a modern world and reap the public relations benefits of their colony achieving a breakthrough in artificial intelligence.<br />
<br />
The rapid expansion of Konyang's industries and cities had overtaxed the limited bureaucracy on the planet to the breaking point, and architects were in short supply. Urban planning on Konyang is estimated to be some of the worst in Alliance space outside of New Hai Phong as a result, with cities such as Point Verdant often having haphazard roads running through them and districts smashed together with no apparent rhyme or reason - a legacy of corporate jockeying for areas of interest, and the municipal corruption that came with it. There are countryside facilities originally utilized for drone research and retrieval that have, in recent years, fallen into disuse and disarray. Such facilities often dot the mountains and foothills of Konyang, slowly being overtaken by nature - sometimes with unfortunate results when these facilities have been improperly stripped of dangerous materials. The environment also suffered in areas where drones were found - jungles were cut or burnt away by corporations in order to get at the precious drones below, prefab buildings were orbitally dropped and erected, and landing zones were cut into the landscape itself.<br />
<br />
The stormy tidal waves so infamous for tormenting the early colonists were tamed through the building of sea walls, a comprehensive road network linked the remote villages with the urban centers, and the city of Ganzaodeng was raised from the rocky desert. The Konyanger conglomerate PACHROM would mark the rise of the first native Chaebols, building shipyards, dams, hydroelectric plants and the first space fleet capable of ferrying enormous capacities of water across interstellar systems.<br />
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===The Positronic Integration | 2410s===<br />
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Soon enough, IPCs entered production on the planet, making Konyang one of the first places to embrace the positronic revolution. The limited resources saw higher prices, lessening the availability of domestically produced frames. Furthermore, the still rudimentary waterproofing technologies meant that IPCs could not work for long hours without shelter, ensuring that human jobs would remain safe from automation. When in the rest of Sol IPCs were produced en-masse for labor, Konyanger IPCs were more integrated in white-collar employment and indoors service-related work. Meanwhile, a growing media culture based on animation combined with the Konyanger recycle-friendly attitude, giving newer generations a fresh look on positronic intelligence, one that valued them as people rather than a disposable resource. The lack of widespread automation never brought the anti-synthetic sentiment so common in the rest of Sol, and IPCs in time became a unique cultural phenomenon in the colony’s urban centers.<br />
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Solarian laws governing the relations between IPCs and mankind were nominally enforced on Konyang, barring synthetics from gaining their own freedom, a fact which remained a thorn between the more liberal, younger Konyangers and the older generations. Einstein Engines allied with the Solarian governorship to press for the continuing status of Konyang as a colony, preventing elections and thus any liberal political influence from threatening the company’s grip on its synthetic workforce. This however, did not prevent Konyanger society to further integrate IPCs, even if the concept of universal citizenship for all synthetics was still far from publicly accepted. Aoyama was most receptive to the positronics, as a center of research and culture, with IPCs welcomed in people’s houses, treated like family and celebrated in festivals and even religious ceremonies. Suwon sentiment remained ambivalent, though many Solarian officials and naval officers expressed most severe concerns, in many cases pressing for crackdowns and questioning the morals of Konyanger citizens. The denizens of New Hong Kong and Ganzaodeng on the other hand, were most unhappy, with the powerful Chinese factory and shipyard labor unions remaining vocally opposed to IPC rights in the workplace, owing to their ties with the wider Solarian unions.<br />
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The profound effects of the emergence of this positronic culture were soon felt across the planet, change being heralded through a wave of demonstrations in mid to late 2412. High school and university students in Aoyama took to the streets to call for synthetic rights, in one of the few instances of pro-IPC disturbances on Solarian soil. In particular, the students called for the immediate emancipation of owned synthetics, marching from the main First Avenue down to the Governor's House and being joined by crowds of people and IPCs alike. The Aoyama Constabulary alongside Terraneus security forces were ordered to put a swift end to the march, resulting in the first major incident since the founding of the colony. Over 400 student injuries were recorded, the crowds responding with rocks and branches to the authorities’ tear gas and water cannons. 247 arrests were made that day, sparking additional outrage in the student movement as the ringleaders were tried as adults and given lengthy prison sentences. Smaller incidents were also noted in Suwon and Boryeong, marking 2412 as a year of upheaval and social change, laying the foundations for full IPC citizenship.<br />
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===Late Colonial Period | 2410s - 2440s===<br />
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As Konyang left behind the troubled ’10s and social peace returned through decrees permitting local city authorities to afford certain permissions for IPCs. This followed the final robotics' boom peak in the 2430s, seeing the planet’s GDP growth reach new levels. The colony’s industrial potential skyrocketed, with hundreds of hydroelectric dams, sea walls and shipyards creating thousands of new jobs in New Hong Kong, the new industrial core of Konyang. Labour relations shifted dramatically, as the new Hephaestus-pioneered industrial chassis enabled IPCs to work in the most difficult of conditions, sidelining and driving off the all powerful Gwongfu labor unions, with human employees forced into the urban centers and Ganzaodeng, contributing to a skyrocketing of the local IPC population in the prefecture.<br />
<br />
Suwon saw a significant rise in business activity with the outside world, emboldening private ventures to the neighboring Frontier Alliance, bringing in massive profits from moss and entertainment exports. The animation industry reached new heights, with hundreds of new studios producing pioneering and high quality work, including classics like “One Day in My Life” and “Tomonomimi”, two of the most highly acclaimed works of media in recent Solarian memory. The entertainment sector brought new life to the Konyanger tourism industry as well, with more and more people rediscovering the distant hidden gem tucked deep in the fringes of the Alliance. The Suwon Stock Exchange was listed for the first time in the Chicago Financial Review, Sol’s most coveted investment periodical, as “Upcoming”, leading to billions of credits flowing in the country from abroad.<br />
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New chaebol conglomerates emerged, replacing even Einstein products with widely successful “Local, Cheaper and Better” campaigns. While Gwok Foods was making headlines in 2439 as the most successful Konyanger “IPC-inspired” exporter by yearly gross tonnage, the Ayame Motor Corporation created the first “completely Konyanger” 2-seat automobile designed for the cramped roads of Suwon and Point Verdant, becoming an instant hit. The Boryeong based Mujigae Publishing brought comics back into the youth’s hands, and Konymation had expanded to control cinemas, movie production studios, theme parks and restaurant chains in its ever expanding media empire.<br />
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===Independence and Present Day | 2462 - Present===<br />
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The Mars Violet Dawn catastrophe of 2462 signaled an era of widespread uncertainty and energy insecurity for the entirety of the Sol Alliance, with the Spur-wide phoron crisis exacerbating the situation for the Alliance’s Middle and especially Outer Ring colonies. A Konyanger recession in the late 2450s had already stretched the colonial government thin, with riots over the cost of living and unemployment in New Hong Kong and Suwon making national news for years on end. As the shaken corporations entered discussions on how they would survive the ever increasing phoron costs, it was made clear to everyone that the Alliance could not, and would not fund the refitting of the corporate fleets with the new Suzuki-Zhang Hammer Drive engine, threatening the complete cutoff of Konyang from outer space should the local Bluespace gate fail. Only a few Einstein vessels and the 58th Fleet stationed on the planet remained as the only reliable link between Konyang and the Spur.<br />
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The shortage soon hit the domestic market, leading to dangerous price increases for even the most essential of supplies. The average Konyanger saw their purchasing power plummet, as salaries remained stagnant in the face of a decreasing supply. The colonial Governor Hyun Kyung-Ho, turned to the only emergency option left, Earth. It was not the first time that Patriotic Aid was raised in China, Korea and Japan, though this time it proved most underwhelming. As the call for help fell on ears of men that could not even help their own economies, the trophy colony had to be abandoned to its own devices, with many in the East Asian public accusing Konyangers of greed and forgetting them in their apogee of financial success. With this last link to the past cut off, the question and possibility of independence soon started circling.<br />
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There was no time for serious debate however, with the Alliance being plunged into rebellion and collapse. On November 12, the 58th Fleet hastily departed Konyang, declaring a state of emergency in the system and abandoning the colonial government to its fate. Only elements of the Solarian Army and the Constabularies remained to maintain order, themselves being composed almost entirely of local Konyanger enlisted. The situation immediately turned into unrest, as public sentiment against the ineptitude of the Alliance boiled over into the streets. Massive student protests saw the storming of public buildings and central plazas in every major town and city, demanding a sharp reduction to the cost of living, IPC emancipation and a barring of the 58th Fleet from returning. Government reaction was mild, limited to the prevention of damages and protection of private property. Hyun Kyung-Ho was otherwise sympathetic to the students’ cause, sparking outrage within groups of Alliance-minded Army officers and Einstein corporate elites, who sought to prevent any secession of Konyang.<br />
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Thus, on November 15 2462, elements of the Army garrison under Lieutenant General Jiang Hongbing mobilized against the wishes of the Governor, taking up key positions in Suwon and Point Verdant. The mutinous 8th Sappers infiltrated the historic SUWON beacon telecommunications complex, preparing the country for a silent coup and preventing any long range communications with Sol. Jiang Hongbing, inspired by actions of mutinous admirals, took it upon himself to restore Konyang to the Alliance by marching the Army into the streets. While some of the formations under his command were willing to participate, the vast majority refused to bear arms against the Konyanger Governor or the student movements. In the following day, an internal power struggle saw many officers confined to their quarters, with Army hardliners being arrested, chased off or even assaulted in their own barracks as a loyalist armored brigade blocked access to the Governor’s House, preventing Hongbing’s men from touching Hyun Kyung-Ho.<br />
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With the coup’s inglorious end visible, the Governor’s staff were racing into negotiations with diplomatic officers from Coalition of Colonies still in the country for an express accession into the Coalition, following Konyang’s independence. Jiang Hongbing’s associates surrendered, himself fleeing into the thick jungles of Boryeong Prefecture, declaring a patriotic struggle in the Alliance’s name before soon being betrayed and confined at the 58th base’s Brig. On November 24 2462, telecommunications were restored, and Konyanger independence was broadcast to the world. The country’s preliminary accession into the Coalition was soon after announced, turning a new leaf in Konyang’s history. While the news was received with muted reaction from a confused Alliance government with more pressing matters to handle, the secession of Konyang was a huge blow to the three parent countries. After Governor Hyun Kyung-Ho assembled the nation’s intellectuals, economic and political figures, it was decided that he would remain in place as independent Konyang’s first Governor to organize free elections and set up the foundations for a democratic state.<br />
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Now, as a free Konyang comes out to the world stage, strong government initiative has seen its large synthetic factories nationalized, rapidly introducing legislation to establish the relationship with Einstein Engines. While they still are the dominating megacorporation on the planet, Einstein has lost most of its heavy industry, though still retaining the important research facilities around the vaults, as well as a good portion of software and positronic brain creation.<br />
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==Location and Environment==<br />
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===The Haneunim System===<br />
The Haneunim System, centered around the yellow star it is named for, Haneunim, contains four major celestial bodies, including the planet of Konyang. The whole system bears evidence of ancient mining operations, missing an asteroid belt to separate the inner and outer system with what few rocks remain being mostly picked clean of minerals.<br />
* '''Huozhu'''<br />
The innermost planet is known as Huozhu and remains practically inaccessible due to the scorching heat of Haneunim. Unmanned drones have indicated that the planet, which is visible to the naked eye on Konyang, is greatly lacking in any mineral wealth and has no atmosphere to speak of.<br />
* '''Hwanung'''<br />
The second planet from Haneunim, Hwanung, is an insignificant dwarf planet believed to have maintained a thin arid atmosphere before most of its mass was artificially stripped away. While relatively close to Konyang and far cooler than Huozhu, observation and a handful of expeditions revealed that most of the planet's crust had been artificially stripped away, exposing its solid, icy mantle. Konyanger exogeologists continue to survey the planet from time to time and PACHROM has obtained a permit to mine ice in order to meet their quotas to Orepit.<br />
* '''Qixi'''<br />
The third planet in the System is Konyang, accompanied by its lifeless moon of Qixi. Qixi is noteworthy for housing a KASF base and shipyard, the Konyanger military's largest off-planet possession; while more prestigious than working aboard one of the KASF's orbital stations, being posted here is considered boring by some. Some in the government have discussed plans to build more shipping hubs on the moon, akin to Biesel's own Valkyrie, but these talks have largely remained academic due to adequacy of Konyang's existing spaceport facilities.<br />
* '''Shiranui'''<br />
Shiranui, a ringed gas giant colored blue thanks to its methane composition, is the outermost planet from Haneunim. Prior to the discovery of phoron, private companies operated over three dozen methane-harvesting facilities in orbit around Shiranui. That number has dwindled down to just thirteen in the past few decades; the remaining workers, their families having often worked in the industry for many years, are usually bitter towards NanoTrasen. The Aerospace Forces keep a number of unmanned satellites around the gas giant in order to better monitor pirate and refugee activity.<br />
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An asteroid belt, far to the outskirts and composed mostly of ice, forms a ring around the entire system, although this remains largely unexploited by both the Konyanger government and local corporations. It is instead the stomping ground of both refugees fleeing the Sol Wildlands, and the pirates that seek to prey on them.<br />
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===Geography===<br />
[[File:Konyang_map_sat.png|A geographic map of Konyang, showcasing the planet's different biomes. |thumb|800px]]<br />
Primarily a tropical world smaller than Earth, Konyang boasts a mean radius of 5,111 kilometers. Freshwater oceans cover upwards of 88% of the planet’s surface. These oceans also grant Konyang its signature green color when viewed from orbit, in no small part thanks to the abundant presence of moss in the planet’s waterways. The planet’s continents are classified by its larger landmasses and island chains, although given the tides, the planet remains studded with small island chains and archipelagos that ebb and flow with the season. Two small ice caps exist on Konyang where the planet experiences a miniscule amount of snowfall and cold climates. The Konyanger terrain is principally mountainous, with large ranges covering vast areas of the planet’s landmasses. The tallest peak belongs to Mount Sansin, the highest mountain standing at a record 13.890 meters above sea level, its base forming an island of its own. Flanking the mountains are usually lush jungles, present in almost every island and continent in varying densities. This means that settlements have to be located in clearings adjacent to the coastline, on terrain with relatively even elevation. The largest and most dense jungle is located in Bukupo, an island in the heart of the Boryeong Prefecture. The largest landmass on the planet is Cheomseongtang, home of the Suwon prefecture and the nation’s capital. Other notable landmasses are the Oshima islands, hosting the largest mountain ranges, as well as the Yu islands, home of the only biome that could be described as a desert. New Hokkaido is the largest northernmost territory, renowned for its biodiversity and frosty tundra due to its proximity to the planet’s pole, as well as a unique lack of jungles. It is administered directly by the Government of Konyang, being the site of many scientific expeditions and military exercises, only boasting a population of a few hundred people.<br />
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===Environment===<br />
[[File:Konyang.png|An image of Konyang, displaying mossy oceans and algae-covered water as the face of the planet. |thumb]]<br />
Konyang features a highly atypical environment for a habitable planet: it is entirely freshwater. The surface of the planet is primarily oceans, with estimates placing upwards of 88% of the planet as covered in water. What is not under the sea are the islands of Konyang, where the vast majority of its population lives. These islands follow a general pattern: a small coastal area and a large mountain range ringing the island. The freshwater oceans of Konyang feature a remarkable diverse biosphere, and Konyang underwater flora, such as freshwater moss, is often used in the planet's native dishes and exported offworld, as far afield as Sol and Tau Ceti. Konyang is defined by two seasons: wet, lasting nine months, and dry, lasting three months.<br />
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The coastal regions of Konyang represent the smallest regions of its islands, but contain upwards of 90% of the planet's population. Often called the "coastal jungles" of Konyang, these areas are extremely wet - flooding is an issue in many areas, though the bulk of populated and urban areas are protected by extensive flood protection infrastructure, primarily lengthy complexes of walls. Coastal areas feature a wealth of plant and animal life, both of which have been put under stress by the rapid expansion of Konyang's cities.<br />
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Although Konyang’s coastal waters are often tinted green from moss, even more so than its oceans, harvesting and cleanup efforts along the coasts of the main and important islands have resulted in some sections of the planet appearing blue. These areas are often exploited for settlements and as tourist destinations for their scenic looks, while dedicated seaweed and algae farms dot the planet, providing an income for local villages and traditional producers. The most famous Konyanger food exporter, Go-Go Gwok!, has the largest involvement in the moss and seaweed industry.<br />
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The inland mountain ranges of Konyang can be up to several kilometers in height in some areas, with smaller foothills featuring some rare settlements leading up to them. These ranges, which are mostly devoid of any valuable minerals, are the reason for Konyang's jungles - they form an effective rain shadow. Some mountains have what is assumed to be collapsed mines in them, deactivated drones scattered throughout.<br />
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A phenomenon unique to the easternmost Yu islands of the Ganzaodeng prefecture, inland deserts are created due to the rain shadow caused by the surrounding mountain ranges. These are the least populated areas of the planet. Extraordinarily dry, little grows or lives in these environments. Rare Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals facilities can be found in this area, taking advantage of the isolation and relatively sterile environment that the inland deserts offer.<br />
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Lastly, the oceans of Konyang are regularly stormy, the large waves being harnessed for their energy in electricity production at numerous such outposts, scattered throughout the unpopulated islets in the farthest and most secluded areas.<br />
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===Flora and Fauna===<br />
Wildlife on Konyang is a peculiar mix of its original environment and the thousands of invasive species introduced by Human colonization. Species introduced in the initial colonization of the planet include huge herbivores and peaceful, if ecologically destructive, wildlife. Additionally, the large oceans are host to an uncountable number of species of fish, crustaceans and aquatic molluscs, with many being unique to their region of origin. Flora on Konyang is among its most famed aspects, spearheaded by the mossy shores and overgrowth which covers the vast majority of its visible terrain. All plant life which survives on Konyang must survive the extremely damp environment, and as such either thrives in the water, or is capable of moving away from it. Konyang's waters are famously covered in green moss and seaweed, giving it its signature color when viewed from orbit.<br />
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Some examples of unique flora and fauna are:<br />
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'''Shelfers'''<br />
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In the marsh and lowlands of Konyang's algae coasts resides an invasive species of large omnivores known as '''Shelfers.''' These are gluttonous moss-feasting beasts, with a distinct six-legged and bloated appearance. They are excellent swimmers, owed to webbed joints and a wedge shaped, slick head. From this, it uses a set of large protruding teeth to scrape moss and undersea growths. This creature is endangered, and displayed as a national animal thanks to its unique appearance. Originally a danger to unprepared colonization, these gained a reputation for its tendency to attack colonists.<br />
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These were first encountered by colonists who had shipped wildlife to and from Arusha, where escaped subjects managed to reproduce- over the years becoming a cultural icon due to their miraculous beneficial place they have in Konyang's ecosystem.<br />
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'''Konyanger Jeweler Cockatoo'''<br />
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Known for its affinity to decorate its nesting grounds with surface-level pearls and gems of all sorts is an opportunistic carnivore, the '''Jeweler Cockatoo.''' This large avian is an offshoot of the Earth parrot, bred originally to “liven the landscape” of Konyang’s dreary inner mountainous lands. Eventually, with the assistance of high-level genetic modification, they grew to giant proportions whilst maintaining the health and lifestyle of a standard - ''if highly dangerous'' - parrot. <br />
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Where small patches of forest and barrens clash, these birds thrive and craft beautiful roosts in the relative safety of open fields. In these fields, diminutive predators avoid the large avian’s glare (or don’t, and are frequently preyed upon.) The Jeweler Cockatoo possesses two sharp talons on one digit of each of its feet, and a short - but unbelievably sharp beak, refined further by its tendency to dig. The wingspan of these birds can grow up to fifteen feet.<br />
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The Jeweler Cockatoo is the national bird of Konyang, with many stylized imagery depicting the bird in some shape or form.<br />
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'''Glittering Konyang Moss'''<br />
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Found in vast plains of coastal territories in excess is the overflowing, yet precious resource of '''Konyang moss.''' One of its primary exports, this barely-tapped commodity retains a huge capacity to feed Konyang’s already sturdy ecosystem, and the billions which reside upon it, and more to export. The evolutionary process which grew this mystical, shimmering moss is a mystery, however its luster and fields of green it generates has a wonderful impact on sustaining Konyang’s moist, overgrown and greenery-rich habitat. <br />
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Konyang moss is pivotal to its moving industries, and even after the robotics boom, it remains a stable source of incoming development for the since-burgeoning planet. The moss’ nutritional properties have been highly studied in recent decades. Its rapid pace of growth is exclusive to Konyang’s ecological circumstances, with everything from subterranean heat, to the algae present in its beautiful green seas factoring in.<br />
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==Economy==<br />
While young, the nation of Konyang boasts a powerful regional economy built upon decades of trade with both the Alliance and various Coalition partners. A developed country, Konyang manages to surpass its near total lack of ore with robust exports of foodstuff and energy, a strong shipping industry and a powerful robotics sector.<br />
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===Raw Materials===<br />
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[[File:Konyang dam.png|thumb|Dams and sea walls are a common sight on Konyang, used to protect cities and population centres from floods and tsunamis, as well as to exploit the violent waves for electricity.]]<br />
Konyang's freshwater oceans were perhaps the largest boon to the starting colonists, and continues to play a substantial role behind the planet's exports. Fishing provides for a large aspect of the domestic economy, with millions of fishing boats and trawlers scouring the shores and oceans for all kinds of fish, crustaceans and other aquatic creatures, of which a complete list doesn't exist. Such is the biodiversity in Konyang's waters, that each region has its own fish markets which serve clients all over the planet and the Spur. Besides fishing, Konyang's biggest aquatic produce in terms of volume belongs to its enormous seaweed and moss harvesting industries. Entire ships are purpose-built for collecting wild greenery which floats on the high seas and the bays of Konyang, bringing in billions in offworld exports and domestic sales. The harvesting of moss is not exclusive to the sea and the aquatic farms either, as many edible varieties are collected inland, both in the planet's jungles and mountain ranges. Konyanger moss is Spur-renowned thanks to powerful marketing campaigns and the spread of the planet's cuisine.<br />
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With tremendously stormy wet seasons lasting most of the year, it is no surprise that Konyanger corporations have attempted and managed to harness the energy of the wind, waves and waters of the planet. Electricity is generated through a network of dams, hydroelectric plants, wave power stations and tidal power stations, all dotted across the vast shores and oceans of Konyang. The electricity produced is then either stored in super capacitors, or is directly wired inland through thick underwater cables, catering to the needs of virtually every power grid on the globe. Much of it is also transported on board space freighters lined with rows of large batteries, ready to make the journey to Alliance and Coalition worlds as part of the lucrative electricity export industry.<br />
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Lastly, Konyang excells in the export of water and timber. The continent-spanning untouched jungles provide an excellent source of wood for foreign markets as well as domestic construction, of which there is very heavy use in lieu of metal structures. The freshwater is also extremely easy to chemically filter, skipping any desalination process before being bottled or shipped as-is on board of one of many of Konyang's water barges; large hollow space vessels with tankers and pools for water storage.<br />
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===Maritime Shipping===<br />
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Surface shipping is another one of the main forces behind Konyang's domestic market economy, and an inseparable part of the nation's maritime culture. The docks and shipyards of New Hong Kong are the beating heart of the sector, which provides employment to more than 20% of the entire planet's population. Entire towns were formed and dedicated to housing the laborers and their families close to the coast, and many islands subsist entirely off of seamen's salaries and work at nearby electricity stations. Surface shipping, while slower, is a lot more economical for planetary moving of goods across the continents and islands of Konyang, being preferred to airlifting or orbital shuttling. Aside from the creation of jobs and the transportation of goods, Konyang's shipping industry produces excellent sailors who can rival those of planets such as Europa, many of whom eventually transition to space.<br />
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===Robotics and Services===<br />
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Ever since the robotics boom, Konyang has become a major player in the export and development of IPCs and everything surrounding them. Each year, the most cutting edge technologies catered to the improvement of the life of synthetics are released by Konyanger software companies, often to critical acclaim. This is because of the the substantial positronic population, free and eager to spend on such innovations that allow them to experience the world in a more human-like fashion. When it comes to the export of IPCs, Einstein Engines remains the prime manufacturer of chassis and positronic brains, which are shipped abroad without being activated. The practice, while putting Konyang on the map as one of the big regional producers of synthetics, is a hotly contested area between deeply entrenched corporate interests and an increasingly politically aware IPC populace. Non-positronic robotics are a separate, but once significant part of the economy, with Konyang having hoeld high places in the spur leaderboards for the making of robots, mechs, pAIs and automated systems. This sector however, took a major hit as the robotics boom slowly deflated, leaving behind abandoned industrial complexes and derelict factories.<br />
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The nation's service sector has to be one of the biggest ones, contributing a sizeable portion of the country's Gross Domestic Product. Many of the companies listed on the Suwon Stock Exchange are everything from financial consultation firms, to insurance agencies, housed in every majpr city's financial district. Skyscrapers and office complexes in downtown Suwon, Point Verdant and New Hong Kong are a daily reminder of the office life millions of Konyangers live, and many parents dream of their child being able to one day find employment in a top law firm or such. While mostly concentrated in the domestic market, many of these companies have expanded their services abroad, building a reputation of Konyanger reliability and impeccable work.<br />
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<br />
===Konyanger Corporations===<br />
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In terms of the traditional megacorporations, the undoubted hegemon remains Einstein Engines, entrenched in the planet's life since the beginning of Konyang's colonization. The megacorporation owns a number of subsidiaries on the planet in many different sectors, most notably, Terraneus Diagnostics, which regularly bankrolls and invests in government initiatives in exchange for their continuous presence. It retains the original research facilities and control over the vaults, even if IPC production and exports are now handled by the Konyang Robotics Corporation, a public company in which Einstein controls a 49% stake. The Terraneus facilities on the planet mainly handle shell research and positronic brain production for export to the Coalition, while they occasionally butt heads with Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals in the realm of IPC research. Zeng-Hu has the second-largest megacorporate presence, mainly in biosphere research and sales of pharmaceuticals. Despite this, local conglomerates generally dominate the country’s financial sector, commanding the government’s cooperation and good graces in order to keep a stable economy. Upon achieving independence, Konyang has managed to maintain a strong presence of homegrown corporations in the fields of agriculture, media, energy and consumer goods.<br />
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'''PACHROM'''<br />
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A chemical and engineering corporation, PACHROM builds, maintains and manages eighty percent of all private dams, hydroelectric plants and seawalls on Konyang, as well as engaging in the field of chemicals and plastics production. Headed by Park Moon-soo, the business mogul is vying for influence with the government as indispensable to the nation’s energy output and defence against floods and natural disasters, making the “Pachrom Parks” one of the richest and most powerful business dynasties on the planet. Headquartered in central Suwon, the bulk of PACHROM’s operations are located in diasporic, uninhabited islands in the middle of the world’s oceans, where hundreds of organic and synthetic workmen toil daily to run the water powered electricity plants in extremely dangerous conditions.<br />
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The company’s notorious reputation for neglecting the safety of its employees and the environmental disregard for waste disposal from its plastics factories has been a big stain the Parks have struggled to wash off. While their ties to both the Alliance administration and the Konyang government have proven instrumental in their ability to dodge damning legal action, demonstrations of public outcry are a common feature in and around the street opposite the PACHROM office complex. To counter this, public relations campaigns are a constant focus, with tens of millions being spent in portraying them in a positive light. Charities are a large part of the Park family’s social presence, sponsoring public works and offering scholarships mainly in the Boryeong and New Hong Kong prefectures, where the majority of employees originate.<br />
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Often finding itself without funds from Unity Station, the colonial administration would commission PACHROM in the form of lucrative contracts for the construction of dams and power stations, allowing the utilisation of synthetics and IPC for the dangerous labour required. Due to society’s favourable opinion towards positronic intelligence, the multitude of cases of IPC fatalities would be swept under the rug with government assistance, creating a culture of tolerance towards lacklustre safety features and general disregard. Today, PACHROM’s future remains uncertain as the newly independent state of Konyang wishes tends to distance itself from its shaky past, a fact indicated by the recent awarding of the Kaneyama nuclear plant to the public company GON-ENE.<br />
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'''Gwok Group'''<br />
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Founded in the early 2410s with the name Hyeonsang Foods, the precursor to today’s multinational food conglomerate was the first attempt at commercialising Konyang’s seaweed and moss both for export and internal consumption. Initially finding limited success due to an overly competitive local market and foreign consumers' reluctance to the Konyanger novelty, the company's defining moment arrived during the robotics boom, launching them from mediocrity into the billion credit business stage.<br />
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As Einstein Engines staff poured into Point Verdant, Hyeonsang secured a contract from the megacorporation's local branch for providing meals and miscellaneous catering to workers and research staff. The once alienated Einstein employees would soon come around, praising the brand for its flavourful seasoning and convenience, eventually spreading the word to Einstein facilities and back home. By the late 40s, Hyeonsang was on the track of significant financial success, having secured a large foothold in the foreign dominated central districts of Point Verdant.<br />
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Rebranding into the more consumer friendly “Gwok” name in 2452, the company’s reputation abroad led to the opening of regional branches in the Solarian middle and core worlds, generating an increasingly massive amount of income, used for an aggressive takeover of the local Konyanger market. By buying off competitors, monopolising the moss and seaweed industry and introducing new marketing, Gwok’s domestic success was soon guaranteed as the primary supplier of supermarkets. In 2454 the IPC Gwok-0783, until then a senior executive and the face of the company as the main influencer of the rebrand, assumed direct control as CEO of the conglomerate thus becoming the first IPC in charge of a billion credit corporation in Sol space. The following years would see the consolidation of all affiliated assets and filial companies under an umbrella Gwok Group, topping the charts and establishing a farming, food and restaurant chain empire.<br />
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'''Konymation'''<br />
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Konymation represents the peak of the Konyanger animated media scene, being by far the most successful and most well known studio in the country, with a Spur-wide fame. It arose in the early days of the robotics boom, creating a resurgency of animations for both children and adults. While the industry was almost non-existent and cheap Solarian cartoons were the norm, a group of inspired artists came together to animate and direct the first feature-length production from Konyang, using native voice actors and a brand new artstyle of their own. The result was "One Day in my Life", a slice of life film following the daily routine of an IPC secretary in a human-dominated world, becoming an instant hit with both domestic and foreign audiences. Since then, Konymation rose to become the largest studio of quality animations, creating films and series for all ages and of all genres. Such was the success, that any animated pieces from Konyang have passed into the public consciousness simply as "Konymations", referred to as such in both the planet and abroad. Since their foundation, the studio has developed into a media conglomerate, buying out holoscreen channels, online platforms, news networks and more.<br />
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'''Mujigae Publishing'''<br />
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The biggest publishing house, Mujigae is to the comic book industry what Konymation is to animation. Having created thousands of interesting and touching comic series, Mujigae is credited with bringing paper back into the hands of millions of Konyangers, in an age where digital platforms have become the default for nearly everything in life. Many of Mujigae's works find great demand abroad as well as at home, with the company being known for their efforts to constantly seek out and recruit new artists with fresh ideas. A plethora of published series often find themselves being adapted into the holoscreen in lucrative partnerships with Konymation, as well as the other way around. Additionally, Mujigae's philanthropic work cannot go unmentioned; millions of credits have found their way to various charities on Konyang, primarily those regarding the children, the money drawn from art festivals and comicons that are hosted annually, often with the participation of the Ministry of Culture. <br />
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'''Konyang Robotics Corporation'''<br />
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The Konyang Robotics Corporation, or KRC as is more commonly known, is the country's largest government-controlled company centered around the manufacture, maintenance and welfare of the nation's positronic population. Borrowing heavily from Einstein know-how and infrastructure, it originated from the nationalization of Einstein and Terraneus IPC factories, with the majority of their employees swapping over to a government payroll. Einstein Engines controls 49% of the shares of the company, lending it tremendous behind-the-scenes influence on Konyang's synthetic population.<br />
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The primary function of the KRC is the production, storage and activation of IPC citizens. A very politically and socially sensitive topic, great care is placed by the government through the Ministry of Health and Positronic Affairs to meticulously calculate and order the amount of yearly activations, so as to maintain the Human-IPC ratio and meet the demands of the job market. To that effect, the KRC also acts as a sort of "school" for the newly activated IPC citizens, with special orientation camps where synthetics are taught about Konyanger society before released to the world.<br />
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Furthermore, the KRC acts as the primary health provider for Konyanger IPCs, with clinics and hospitals situated in every town and city, as well as strategically placed in certain villages in the countryside. Thousands of roboticists, engineers and software technicians are employed by the KRC to act as the equivalents of surgeons, physicians, nurses and paramedics for the IPC population, who are afforded universal healthcare through the KRC. Appointment times are dependent on location and the capacity of the clinic or hospital, with many in more remote areas having to wait months for limb replacements and other, more heavy duty needs that cannot be met by their local KRC center.<br />
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'''GON-ENE'''<br />
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GON-ENE is a newly formed, state-controlled energy utilities company, created following the announcement of the Kaneyama Nuclear Power Plant. Perceived as a direct competitor to PACHROM, GON-ENE has been planned to expand into hydroelectric and wave power, giving the government a greater control of the nation's power grid and cutting back reliance on privately-owned sector, though complete autarky is off the table for at least many decades.<br />
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==Government==<br />
''Main Article: [[Konyanger Government and Politics#Government|Konyanger Government]]''<br />
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Konyang is organized as a unitary semi-parliamentary republic headed by a President, the former colonial governor Hyun Kyung-Ho being elected to the position after independence. The Prime Minister is elected by the citizenry every four years, and is the leader of the governing party in the Parliament of Konyang. The current Prime Minister is Myeong Myung-Dae.<br />
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Planetary politics are found on both a national and prefectural level, with every party running in local and national elections. Polarization is fairly limited, the vast majority of Konyangers rejecting the extreme views put forward by radical political movements in the country that tend to be marginalized. IPC politicians do exist and are found in every major party, though most can be seen sitting with the National Party of Konyang.<br />
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===Military===<br />
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[[File:Marine.png|thumb|right|An IPC Konyanger Naval Infantryman in full gear.]]<br />
Konyang’s military, also known as the Konyang Armed Forces, was first formed shortly after the colony’s independence from personnel of the former Solarian garrison. As a result, it carries a lot of the traditions of the Solarian Armed Forces. Bolstered by conscription laws requiring both organic and synthetic citizens one year of mandatory service, the KAF possesses Army, Navy and Aerospace branches. IPCs are actively recruited and accepted into the military, forming both their own and deployed in mixed units. This segregation is justified by the government as based solely on the differentiating capabilities, logistical needs and skills between man and machine.<br />
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That claim does hold true to an extent, with IPCs taking a more active role in special forces formations, dealing with operations requiring levels of precision and focus that artificial intelligence can easily provide. A famous example is the army’s Mechatronic Corps, an elite unit utilising large, leftover battle mechs retrofitted for a pair of pilots. Such a force is unique in the Coalition, and is often used abroad in operations under broader CoC military command. Mixed infantry units of conscripts do exist, fielded in jungle patrol tasks or assigned garrison duty.<br />
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Notably for a 25th century military, the Navy maintains a very large aquatic force which it uses to patrol the vast oceans of the planet. Regularly described as more of a coast guard than a military arm, it is more geared for domestic policing than combat, consisting mostly of ships acting as launching points for many smaller, coast guard type vessels that patrol the vast expanse of the planet’s waterways and launch military aircraft. Nevertheless, it provides important services with its multiple telecommunication, radar and island outposts, providing crucial meteorological information for everyday seafaring and flood prevention on a planet where storms and extreme weather are the norm.<br />
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The Konyang Aerospace Forces perform both atmospheric and orbital operations with their doctrine clearly influenced by former Solarian officers within their ranks. Their fleet consist of obsolete vessels donated by Coalition planets, partially brought up to a modern standard by the planet’s technology and manufacturing sector. In 2465, the KASF’s main tasks include protecting the system from pirates and policing the large influx of refugees from the Human Wildlands, regularly pushing them to other planets within the Coalition as per Konyang’s strict migration laws.<br />
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===National Police===<br />
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[[File:Konyanger Police Ranks.png|thumb|In order to organize the National Police and smooth cooperation between prefectures, a unified rank structure was adopted shortly after its formation.]]<br />
Despite its federal nature, the main law enforcement agency on the planet is the National Police, formed after Konyang’s independence from the merging of a number of local and specialised agencies under the then Solarian authority. One major change since then has been the introduction of synthetic officers in all positions and ranks, while also creating special divisions suited best for them. Police gear remains rather antiquated for the era, the force still using old Solarian equipment and stocks from the colonial garrison, meaning that much of the tactics and thinking remain unchanged. Considered tame by Alliance standards, the National Police places an emphasis on preventative policing, building rapport with local communities, and relying on a sense of civic duty from the populace to perform its duties. Despite this, the National Police has nonetheless received criticism for occasional incidents of corruption and brutality, mostly against synthetic citizens. This is more common in remote departments and conservative prefectures, where the sudden inclusiveness of synthetic officers with equal pay and opportunities is seen as a threat. Such incidents aside, government efforts for the modernisation of the National Police are ongoing.<br />
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The police is subject to the Ministry of Public Safety in Suwon and is organised at the national level, with local departments answering to the assigned hierarchy in their prefecture. Special divisions are deployed to deal with various policing duties, their size ranging from a whole new branch to Special Robotics detachments specialising in detainment of volatile synthetic suspects. The largest of these subdivisions and arguably the most important, the Coast Guard is the maritime arm of the National Police, operating a fleet of shore and sea patrol vessels in their mission to enforce the law at the huge array of islands and in Konyang’s waters. As the planet is surrounded by oceans, the Coast Guard has proven itself essential to the battle against smuggling and piracy while also assuming search and rescue duties during flooding, tsunamis and other catastrophes. The National Police has also gained Coalition-wide acclaim for its Special Robotics Division - a task force known for its expertise in detaining IPC without causing permanent damage.<br />
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==Culture==<br />
''Main article: [[Konyanger_Culture_and_Society|Konyanger Culture]]''<br />
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Konyang’s culture has been shaped by its East Asian Earther heritage, unique status as a colony with little to no resources, and as the birthplace of positronics. Konyanger society is often described as closed-off, with many unspoken social norms that vary from prefecture to prefecture. Key social norms that are shared in Konyang’s culture are Harmony, Reciprocity, and Face. Often derided as “meekness”, Harmony refers to enforcing unity and conformity within society. The specific manifestations vary from prefecture to prefecture, but in general, individuals who disrupt a sense of peace can face social ostracization. For instance, explicit disagreement such as using the word “no” is considered impolite, and a non-answer is often far more acceptable. Harmony also refers to a person’s social role; respect should be shown to people of a higher status, usually along traditional lines such as age, profession, and experience.<br />
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===Media===<br />
''Main article: [[Konyanger_Culture_and_Society#Media|Media]]''<br />
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Public media in Konyang is a powerful industry, and as broad as it may seem, it is very tightly knit. Aside from galactic-wide reruns and broadcasts of other nation’s shows, little seems to stand out - except the audio broadcast and illustrated artistic avenues. These two are well-refined artistic giants compared to other forms of entertainment on the planet.<br />
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A huge portion of the planet’s political views and very “personality” are channeled through its larger studios, where many are found enthused to spread its culture galaxy-wide.<br />
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===Cuisine===<br />
The primary diet of Konyangers consists of moss, seaweed and fish, with farms and pastures on land being rare due to the thick jungle. Konyang's moss is either harvested in the wild, grown in "natural" hydrofarms, or grown synthetically in bioplants. The moss itself is said to change its taste depending on the environment in which it is grown, and natural moss from the coasts around Konyang's islands is highly prized. Exports of moss and seaweed are a very lucrative business, held primarily by the galaxy-famous Go-Go Gwok! brand. Many workers, however, must make do with hydrofarm moss at best, and synthetic substitutes at worst. Konyang's fish - quite diverse, due to its freshwater environments - are also often consumed on the planet, with many being exported as luxury food as far afield as Venus and Tau Ceti. More conventional but water-intensive crops such as rice and other tropical fruits are also grown to a certain extent but are considered a rarity.<br />
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The planet is also home to a thriving beverages industry, with local varieties of algae providing the basis of a light but thick alcoholic drink colloquially known as “Nong jiu” domestically and abroad. The wide selection of produce on the planet however means more traditional drinks are produced, typically drawing from their Earther roots and commonly based on rice. Some of these drinks are exported by local businesses such as Go-Go Gwok! while Zeng-Hu has wrestled to control some of these brands in an attempt to stop them from competing with their own lineups.<br />
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===Synthetic Cuisine===<br />
Synthetic-unique cuisine is an unusual case in the Spur, but not for Konyang. Here, robots utilize gustatorial implants to - if inefficiently - consume, or at least “taste” food regularly. Indeed, there is an entire market for synthfood where robots can enjoy their own form of taste, texture and uniquely perceptive flavor for foods. Mostly, synthfood is described as a thick slime, one with varying additives for color. Texture is mostly a simulated process within gustatorial implants, given they are not always present on tongues alone - meaning that the actual texture of these synthfoods remains the same gooey substance.<br />
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''One can achieve a similar substance to these synthfoods mechanically by grinding certain foods into paste, or utilizing candy machines with your choice of ingredients and output.''<br />
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==Organized Crime==<br />
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=====Benevolent Guild=====<br />
The Benevolent Guild is a criminal organisation operating primarily within the decrepit, dark shadows of New Hong Kong. Originating as a mutual aid society for low income and forced penal colonists shipped into New Hong Kong by the Alliance government, it developed into a ruthless crime syndicate with strong ties to the local lower class community. From the start, the tightly knit communal and familial ties have played an important role in preserving the gang’s power and shielding them from police action. Only in recent years has any meaningful progress been made, the allocation of governmental resources and the increasingly violent and profit-oriented tactics of the Guild having alienated much of the younger generation, chipping away at the once widely popular support.<br />
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Starting with extortion and loan sharking, the Benevolent Guild rapidly expanded into gambling, drugs and violent crime such as kidnapping both in New Hong Kong and in New Kowloon. It is not uncommon for synthetics that find themselves victims of the group’s loan shark tactics to be ‘collected’ as collateral damage and subsequently carted off to whichever corner of the Orion Spur where their new owners await them usually at a far cheaper rate than elsewhere. One of the few institutions on Konyang refusing to admit synthetics owing to a deeply conservative and spiritually esoteric internal ideology, a pragmatist outlook often compels them to deal with and even cooperate with IPC politicians, police and rival gangs. Connections with criminal organisations in the wider Spur have been confirmed to exist, as various crime syndicates in Xanu, New Hai Phong and Luna are known to be in connection with the Benevolent Guild.<br />
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=====5-Cheung=====<br />
Emerging as one of the strongest IPC/organic street gangs of Suwon, the 5-Cheung numbers in the thousands of members in the cities of the Suwon and Point Verdant prefectures. The organisation’s origin as a loose collective of delinquents and fringe elements has since developed into a nationwide crime family with a powerful hierarchy fielding biker gangs and thugs to enforce their tight grip on the underworld. With a black repertoire of gambling, extortion, money laundering and narcotics, the 5-Cheung is considered a main rival to the Benevolent Guild of New Hong Kong, the two frequently coming to blows in a series of wars and uneasy truces over control of turf and general competition.<br />
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An open secret in the country’s political sphere has the 5-Cheung profit lucratively from corruption in the highest levels of government and police. During the Solarian era, prominent politicians employed protection from the 5-Cheung, soliciting their services in voter swaying, intimidation of opposition members and violent disruption of rallies and demonstrators. This has given the gang a justified reputation for being the political soldiers of ruling dynasties and representing the authorities in the underworld and on the street in exchange for immunity from prosecution. Following Konyang’s independence, the reformed National Police retained a virtually unchanged staff while the nation’s same prominent political families, now unshackled from Alliance oversight, enjoy even more freedom. As such, it is safe to say that 5-Cheung’s entrenched position will continue to remain untouched aside from the occasional drug bust and arrest of low level members.<br />
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=====Sea Bandits=====<br />
Although both the previous colonial administration and the nascent Konyanger Armed Forces and Coast Guard have tried to stamp out piracy, the sheer expanse of the planet means that groups of what the authorities call “sea bandits” continue to infest the waters and orbit of Konyang. Ranging from small motor boats launched from fishing villages with nothing more than an antique rifle, to retrofitted probes salvaged from the refugee waves pouring into the system, piracy is one of the most pressing social and security issues faced by the newly formed nation.<br />
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Individual pirate groups usually number no greater than twenty people but the Sea Bandits as a whole operate as a wider criminal network inclusive of individuals and crews from all over the planet. By coordinating their activities and intelligence through encrypted sites, the organisation manages to both evade and stay one step ahead of the authorities. Most of their activities take the form of kidnapping, armed robbery of craft and hijacking unescorted seafarers, while admittedly avoiding the busiest and well guarded sealanes and locations. The most audacious raid by the Sea Bandits to date involved the boarding and ransoming of a cruise ship by the use of an unregistered freighter. Although only circumstantial evidence has been uncovered, Golden Deep Zaibatsu have also been accused of working with Sea Bandit groups by launching probes full of narcotics, to be recovered by the pirates.<br />
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==Synthetics on Konyang==<br />
As the origin of the integrated positronic chassis now found throughout the Orion Spur, Konyang has always had a quite unique relationship with IPCs, the IPC population constituting a staggering 34% of the total population. While IPCs throughout the Sol Alliance are often looked upon as little more than property, tools, or novelties depending upon their frame those found upon Konyang possessed a notably greater degree of autonomy and freedom before the planet’s secession from the rest of the Alliance, achieving full and unconditional freedom afterwards. Legal ownership of synthetics within the borders of the Republic does not exist, the Emancipation Act constituting one of the first acts passed by Parliament. IPCs can work wherever they like, live however they please within the confines of the law, and partake in politics by voting or being elected. As such, foreigners are repeatedly cautioned to not bring any privately held IPCs with them, for they cannot be forced to return unwillingly.<br />
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Ordinary Konyangers, as a result of the planet’s liberal outlook on positronics, possess a more positive view of synthetics than other humans in the Orion Spur - particularly those from the Sol Alliance and its former territories. The majority of people on Konyang view IPCs as amicable colleagues and neighbours, with many friendships between man and machine being established. Closer bonds such as marriage are also legalised and not unheard of, though not without outcries from the more conservative spectrum. Many scholars theorize that this is due to the prevalence of IPCs in daily life on Konyang, seamlessly blending into society, in addition to the pride many citizens have in their planet being the origin of the modern positronic. Konyang’s integration of IPCs stands with some degree of contrast to Biesel’s, with the large synthetic ghetto of District 14 segregating many synthetics from the average citizen of the Republic of Biesel.<br />
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With Konyang’s independence, IPCs share full legal equality with all organic citizens of the planet. This concession was given, both as an acknowledgement and acceptance of the fact that synthetics have become part of everyday life in the colony and are generally accepted by its inhabitants. Unlike the Republic of Biesel, IPCs in Konyang seek to assimilate into human society, with IPCs being given the choice to adopt a second, “human name” before receiving citizenship. A human name can range from an entirely new name, to adding a first or last name of any kind to their existing designation.<br />
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Many positronics can be found within the economy of Konyang with perhaps the most famous (or infamous) one being Gwok-0783 (now Kim Gwok-0783, under post-independence IPC naming conventions), the owner and operator of her very own food conglomerate in the form of Go-Go Gwok! Authentic Konyanger Moss. As Go-Go Gwok! is technically an interstellar corporation, Gwok-0783 herself relied on a series of legal loopholes centered around Konyang’s former IPC laws to maintain control of the company when Konyang was still in the Sol Alliance. Examples such as Gwok, with her control of an inter-planetary corporation, are fairly rare. However, many positronics have made a successful name for themselves as small business owners and corporate workers on Konyang.<br />
[[File:Konyang vault.png|thumb|A mysterious vault upon Konyang's surface, unearthed and built around with monitoring infrastructure.]]<br />
Due to the system’s bluespace gate, the [[Synthetic_Factions#The_Golden_Deep|Golden Deep]] has made great strides in establishing embassies and industry on Konyang. Now a contender with the Konyang Robotics Corporation, Golden Deep merchants have both been providing aid and competition to the businesses on Konyang after the Silicon Nightmares crisis. Konyang is now both a major business landmark for the Golden Deep, as well as a middle point to the more lucrative markets of Tau Ceti and the Jewel Worlds. The money and business brought into the system by these synthetic traders has - arguably - been a major contributor to Konyang’s more liberal laws and regulations regarding IPCs. Konyang, before its independence, was one of the few systems under Solarian control in which IPCs could own and operate a business. <br />
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The synthetic population in Konyang is regulated by the government. A set number of positronics are assembled each year under contract at Terraneus Diagnostics facilities in Point Verdant with the prospect of being granted citizenship after a 3 month life orientation period. The determined number is set annually by Parliament, backed up by the yearly census and statistics, with production increasing or decreasing depending on the number of human birth ratios, positronic shutdowns, and other factors. Expenses are met both through government funds and private donations, though debate on the matter is rarely heated as the amount of new brains numbers usually in the hundreds; a tiny fraction of positronics produced and exported in total. IPCs and positronics constructed for the purpose of selling them to a different country, are not covered by such regulations and are not given citizenship.<br />
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There are further regulations in robotics construction in Konyang. Any activated positronic brain can qualify under the Emancipation Act. Exceptions to the law exist for manufacturing and research, with Point Verdant in particular activating positronic brains for the sake of testing shells before shipping them off-world. The law has also sparked development in other fields of mechatronics, with Konyang beginning to lead the way in circuit-based robotics.<br />
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Despite gains for its IPC citizens, other positronic intelligences have not been so lucky. Although some brains have been repurposed as AI coordinators for cities; with no way to transition to humanoid frames, bound intelligences have been granted freedom, but often take contracts with corporations that result in a return to the old status quo, all for the sake of staving off destruction due to a lack of maintenance.<br />
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===Konyanger Augmentation of IPCs===<br />
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Augmentation on Konyang is a fascinating subject, where the presence of so many IPCs has brought success in modifying the Positronic body and mind. Famed explorations into the sectors of IPC modification include "sensory evolution," where synthetics' senses being amplified or dulled in extremes according to desire.<br />
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Primary among the delves into this evolution of the senses is the New Dawn Augmentation Movement. This is a Konyanger organization based on the improvement of the IPC lifestyle via modifying chassis, funded peculiarly by Terraneus Diagnostics. The movement is oddly organized as a non-profit, going against the corporation’s established modus operandi. This, coupled with the tantalizing opportunity to freely modify an IPC's form with donated funds leads to public skepticism of the augment movement’s motivations.<br />
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Still, the true size of the movement to augment and improve Konyang's IPC population is extraordinary in comparison to other stellar nations. Roughly 22% of Konyang IPCs have some form of corporate-funded augmentation to enhance themselves.<br />
[[File:Konyang augment1.png|thumb|A Konyanger design, the Scorpion Lobe is an augment which manipulates the perception of time for synthetics for better or worse.]]<br />
* '''SENSO-EVO/Scorpion Lobe'''<br />
A miraculous creation of Konyang's technological advancement, SENSO-EVO is the term aptly handed to Sensory Evolution's foremost product. This is the Scorpion Lobe, a similarly shaped attachment to the rear of a positronic brain which adjusts the rate at which the synthetic perceives time literally. The implications of this are seen as either a blessing or a curse — sometimes even utilized as a way to reduce problematic behavior in positronics.<br />
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These implants are commercialized to protect the integrity of brains which adopt extremely high speed tasks, or extremely tedious and slow ones, with a perception that best suits their given utility.<br />
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A double edged sword by nature, these are often removed by free positronic chassis due to their almost torturous nature. Some may find their lives flashing hours into moments, whilst others may find daily grinds to be impossibly long ordeals. Unfortunately, removing these implants is not always a safe procedure, sometimes damaging a brain or rendering the problem worse.<br />
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These were first manufactured by Hephaestus Industries on instrumental Konyang research facilities, and later acquired by Einstein Engines personnel in the same month - debates over the design’s origin have been ongoing since 2449.<br />
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===Recreational Software===<br />
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In the IPC community of Konyang, the culture of acceptance and freedom has always invited the curiosity of synthetics to imitate and follow human pastimes and habits. This in turn included activities such as smoking, synthetic flavours and eventually, recreational drugs. Due to the nature of the positronic, the only way to recreate such sensations is through software targeting and modifying specific programming in the brain. At first, this dangerous commodity was provided by amateur programmers using experimental and highly volatile code known as “overloaders”, leading to often irreparable and lethal damage to an IPC’s systems. The results of the few initial successes, however, proved promising enough for the idea to be seriously considered by upcoming Konyanger tech companies and business-oriented software engineers, leading to the first reliable and somewhat safe overloaders in the mid to late 2450s. <br />
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Popular awareness of recreational software became widespread upon its release as a commercial product, Konyang being the first world to introduce a marketable version of it. Usually sold inside a single-use stick drive, their circulation is approved by safety boards and is considered legal for responsible consumption, much like alcohol for organics, relying on the consumer for mitigation and avoidance of repeated use. Legal overloaders today can be found mainly in synthetic-centred retailers found around the major cities, their relatively limited availability and high price setting them as a luxury IPC item. Its effects include a wide range of results, from simulating the sensations of a light buzz to a short bout of excitement and joy, aimed at enhancing the experience at celebrations, parties and get-togethers.<br />
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However, where there is demand, there must be supply, and the fact that demand spiked as these new products launched paved the way to a large underground market of cheap, unsafe and highly unpredictable overloaders sold both by dealers and unlicensed street vendors of dubious reputation. An illegal overloader epidemic hitting the cities of Suwon and Boryeong in late 2459, led to intensified police crackdowns and government campaigns against illicit overloaders, labelling them as malware and the IPC equivalent of dangerous drugs. Virtually unrecognisable from a legitimate overloader without the seal, side effects are many times more powerful and addicting, appealing to adventurous synthetics and the financially insecure. From catapulting the positronic into a garbled, incomprehensive reality of simulated emotions to simply heightening the senses, the illegal overloaders’ addictive and dangerous nature leads many synthetics to disrepair, involving behaviour breaking glitches, hardware failures and more, all while guaranteeing a returning clientele.<br />
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Reception to recreational software has been mixed, dividing society and politicians on matters of free will, the dangers of overloaded IPC, and the overall ethics of deliberately creating and selling what are essentially drugs. Both synthetics and humans have loudly spoken against it, spawning demonstrations and dividing politicians across party lines. Legislation has already passed, categorising possession and distribution of illicit overdosers as strictly illegal, with heavy punishments for dealers and suppliers. Police and coast guard raids yield millions of unbranded overloaders each year, making highly publicised arrests while sending a message of absolute intolerance towards the malware. Despite this, circulation never ceases and exports to Xanu, Tau Ceti and Sol.<br />
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==Population and Major Cities==<br />
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[[File:Konyang_map_pol.png|thumb|800px|A map of Konyang showcasing the Prefectures and the New Hokkaido Territory. Click to enlarge.]]<br />
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'''Suwon''' is the largest, most populated, and second wealthiest city on Konyang itself and is generally one of the larger cities in the Coalition of Colonies. It functions as both the planetary capital, as well as the capital of Suwon Prefecture, encompassing the entirety of Cheomsongtang. Symbolic of the new government is the Parliament Building, a massive structure of flowing lines and sustainable technology, incorporating pieces of the first colony ship. The Prime Minister's Government House, the President's Crimson House, the Solarian embassy, as well as embassies from various Coalition states are present here as well. Standards of living in wealthiest areas of Suwon are equivalent to and (sometimes) even surpass the living standards of places such as Highland City or Argia sa Mar, demonstrating how wealthy the robotics boom has made some sectors of the planet. A lack of readily-available materials, however, ensures that even the super-rich of Konyang often live in smaller houses than their Colonies planet counterparts. Life outside these wealthy areas is better than life in most cities in Himeo but dramatically worse than in the very wealthy areas, or even the cities of Xanu Prime. Overcrowding is a massive issue for the government of the city, with no obvious solution presenting itself due to how expensive importing new building materials is post-boom. The city is home to most of Konyang's biggest companies and office complexes, as well as the Suwon Stock Exchange, making the city's financial district the economy's beating heart. "Shoebox apartments" are common here, as are Konyang's often egregious traffic issues. The city is fortified with extensive sea walls, flood walls and flood gates to prevent natural disasters during the wet season, tropical storms being fairly common.<br />
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[[File:Point verdant.png|thumb|One of Aoyama's many skyscraper blocks, safely located behind a dam.]]<br />
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'''Aoyama''', known in the larger Spur as '''Point Verdant''', is the second most-populated city on Konyang, and the industrial heart of its robotics industry. Built along a coastal mountain range from which it draws its namesake, it is by far the wealthiest city on Konyang, and one of the richest cities in the Coalition of Colonies. Due to being home of the Robotics Boom, hosting foreigners and their families that once even surpassed the locals inside the city, Aoyama is frequently known outside to outsiders and to the Spur at large as Point Verdant, much to the chagrin of the locals. Aoyama is home to the renowned Point Verdant Terraneus Institute of AI Research, and is the poster child for the rapid development of Konyang's cities during the Boom. The city is extremely wealthy, but suffers from persistent overcrowding and traffic issues in all of its districts. The Pusan District, near PVTI, had the reputation of possessing the worst traffic in the Alliance according to its residents. Air quality in Aoyama is regarded as subpar, due to the amount of robotics factories in the city's outskirts, which have however slowly but steadily declined since. Being the focal point of the Robotics Boom, it is home to a large number of expatriate communities and Einstein Engines employees.<br />
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'''Boryeong''', named after a city on historical Earth where some of its colonists originated from, is the third most populated city on Konyang and capital of the Boryeong Prefecture, referred to as the breadbasket of the nation. The city, while still suffering overcrowding issues, has it to a lesser extent than Point Verdant or Suwon, with the city's outskirts necessitating a need for space due to the vast hydroponics farms and water plants. A second-grade industrial city of much natural beauty, Boryeong is more rustic than its counterparts, with wood playing a much more prominent role in construction; outside the central ring, some of Boryeong's districts are built entirely out of timber. Water bottled or processed in Boryeong is sold throughout the Alliance and Coalition in bulk, and native moss grown in the prefecture is marketed throughout both as a luxury food. Over half of the city's labourers are employed in hydroponics, aquaculture, fishing and food processing, with Gwok Foods being the largest provider of work in the region. Synthetic moss is grown in Zeng-Hu facilities near Boryeong and, despite being regarded as lesser quality than natural moss, is often consumed in poorer areas of Konyang. <br />
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'''Ganzaodeng''', named for its dry locale, is located in Konyang's only desert and holds the largest expatriate populations on the planet, being nicknamed, “Little Sol”. Due to its unique geographic setting, it faces remarkably calmer weather than the rest of the planet, with the city being connected to the rest of the island by air and rail that cuts right through the mountains. Ganzaodeng is Konyang's only planned city with origins in the Robotics Boom, when the foundations were laid for a city envisioned by foreigners, for foreigners. Rich Solarians descended upon the planet's seemingly only dry piece of real estate, building a city full of nightlife and eclectic inner-ring pleasures within the distant colony. By the end of the Boom however, the city's famous strips of casinos and luxury hotels still operating in downtown Ganzaodeng became a symbol of a bygone era, as much of the Solarian population elected to depart. The city passed into native Konyanger hands, being expanded into a hub of shipping with the help of the city's remaining big names. Because of the reliably clear weather, Ganzaodeng has developed a sprawling extraplanetary shipping sector, with plans for a spaceport larger than New Hong Kong’s, as well as future schemes for the largest oceangoing port on the planet. Its climate has resulted in the prefectural government engaging in moss filtration efforts to open up the surrounding beaches to tourism. Despite of the Solarian exodus, the city stands in contrast to the rest of Konyang’s relatively conservative social nature, with people from all over the Spur calling it their home and making it by far one of the most multicultural centers on the planet. It’s not uncommon for a person from Ganzaodeng to know two or three languages.<br />
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'''Ushishir''', the least populous and most northern major city on Konyang, is the center of life in the New Hokkaido Territory. It was less impacted by the robotics boom than the rest of Konyang due to its location and instead has long served as a tourist destination for the planet and beyond, with the hills and mountains surrounding it being ideal for winter sports, and snow being on the ground year-round. Ushishir itself is fortunate enough to have a year-round port, but can sometimes find itself cut off from the broader territory by intense blizzards. Health tourism has become a major source of income for the city, with its air and springs advertised as the cleanest on Konyang. Much of the city is employed in the service or tourism industries, and it has become as famous for its nightlife as it is for its resorts. Konyanger organized crime has left its fingerprints on the nightlife of the city, with many clubs being affiliated with either the Benevolent Guild or 5-Cheung. Ushishir is also known for its outdoor clothing industry, with local corporations such as Furukawa Footwear being known across Konyang. The cold temperatures of Ushishir and New Hokkaido have attracted a significant synthetic population, but most originate from outside the city — prior to 2462, only a sliver of its population was synthetic. In addition, its perceived safety from the hivebot incursion attracted many IPCs there after the Rampancy Crisis who settled primarily along its outskirts. Its residents are often stereotyped as friendly and talkative, due to associations with its tourism and hospitality industries.<br />
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'''New Hong Kong''', the site of the former naval base of the 58th Solarian Fleet, has now developed into a fully fledged city in its own right, being the only prefectural capital with a local synthetic majority. Being regarded as a lot more pedestrian and working-class than Suwon and Point Verdant, New Hong Kong is nonetheless a very important centre of interplanetary trade and commercial activity, hosting the planet’s largest ocean ports and dockyards, being the country's industrial's hotspot and the seat of power generation. Large hydroelectric dams, wave energy converters, dockyards and factories belonging to the PACHROM corporation provide employment for half of the city’s inhabitants, the Prefecture of New Hong Kong generating enough electricity for domestic consumption as well as exports. Employees of the various power companies may also elect to be sent off to one of the many power generation isles scattered throughout the oceans and dedicated solely to that purpose, receiving better pay in exchange for more dangerous conditions away from home. The city itself is considerably more packed than its counterparts, with small cramped apartments being stacked over each other to form vertical mazes of working class blocks. Heavy smog and particles cover up the sky through the entirety of the island during the dry season, giving the prefecture a signature orange-brown tint. This, as well as constant heavy rains and a near permanent gloomy weather during the wet season place it as undesirable for humans. Seat of the National Party, downtown New Hong Kong is described as the centre of planetary IPC politics, being the first to react to, condemning or praising events in Konyang and throughout the galactic stage in regards to the synthetic “race”. New Hong Kong is additionally the birthplace of Konyang's labor unions, with the Socialist Party enjoying strong support from the city's human blue-collar workforce.<br />
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[[File:Konyangdam.png|thumb|900px|center|Dams are a very common sight on Konyang, with the New Hong Kong's dam in the neighbouring industrial town of New Kowloon providing only a fraction of the power required by the city, while also playing an important part in flood control and water filtration.]]<br />
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[[Category:Pages]]</div>The Strykerhttps://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=User:The_Stryker/Sandbox_2&diff=35784User:The Stryker/Sandbox 22025-05-05T02:00:55Z<p>The Stryker: Created page with "{{Navbox Lore}} {{Navbox Human Lore}} {{Navbox Konyang}} <center>File:Konyang_pixel.png</center> {{TOC Hidden}} {{Template:Region-RebelsReach}} ==Overview== Originally established in 2305 as a Solarian Alliance Outer Ring planet, Konyang is presently one of the more distant outposts under the Coalition of Colonies after its independence in '''2462'''. Konyang’s capital city Suwon, the largest settlement on the planet, is built upon a natural formation that defines..."</p>
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==Overview==<br />
Originally established in 2305 as a Solarian Alliance Outer Ring planet, Konyang is presently one of the more distant outposts under the Coalition of Colonies after its independence in '''2462'''. Konyang’s capital city Suwon, the largest settlement on the planet, is built upon a natural formation that defines most of Konyang's geography: islands with large interior mountains that feature lush, but soaking wet, coastal jungle regions. Konyang was initially a relatively average Outer Ring settlement intended to export water, before the discovery of mysterious, deactivated drones in 2407 led to a robotics boom occuring on the planet that lasted well into the 2450s. The Konyang of today is a planet renowned for its robotics industry, though some of its initial luster has faded in the years following its boom. Water, however, remains a key industry - the planet has a remarkably low salination level, meaning that essentially all of its water is drinkable. Konyang Solarian Common, or Konyang Common, is the most used language on the planet inside and outside of major population centers. Due to its proximity to the Coalition of Colonies planets, Coalition member planets often import water from Konyang. In major cities and universities, Tradeband can be found being spoken, though it remains rare. Speakers of the language are generally from off-planet, moving to Konyang during its robotics boom. Konyang almost completely lacks valuable minerals due to intensive mining efforts carried out by drones—whose source remains unknown—hundreds of years before it was colonized.<br />
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'''Because of the ethnic make-up of Konyang's original settlers and assimilation of immigrants into the native population during the first AI boom, human characters born on Konyang will have names and appearances consistent with the people of China, the Korean Peninsula, and Japanese Islands. Only native Konyangers or Konyang-made IPCs may select the Konyanger accent. This is enforceable by server moderators and admins.'''<br />
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[[File:Konyang flag.png| The Konyanger flag was adopted in 2462, having unofficially been used by pro-autonomy circles long before the declaration of independence. The traditional taijitu represents peace and harmony as the highest values of the new state, with the color blue representing the waterways the planet is known for and yellow, their aim of prosperity. The white background represents Konyang's purity.<br />
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==History==<br />
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===Conception and Planning | 2200s - 2299===<br />
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When the United Nations proposed and eventually enforced the creation of the Alliance of Sovereign Solarian Nations, China, Korea and Japan were once more forced to band together to compete with the world for influence inside the newly found institution. Rivals such as the European Union, the Soviet Union, the Commonwealth and the United States were first in line to claim hegemonic roles, their space programs forming the core of Solarian colonization of the Inner, Middle and Outer rings over the centuries, populating them with their own peoples and sparking an unofficial race for prestige land grabs, one which the Department of Colonization was more than happy to let unfold, resulting in the extremely fast expansion of Humanity into the Orion Spur. While regional powers such as India and the Mediterranean countries began creating their own colonies on Gadpathur and Assunzione, the East Asian trio were relegated to secondary roles of supplying technology, labor and capital without any actual representation in the stars, a situation problematic for some and resented by many in the “sovereign” governments.<br />
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It was thus decided to present a plan to Solarian functionaries for a colony spearheaded by China and supported heavily by Korea and Japan, aimed at restoring the pride of the three “cousin-nations” and their position in the Alliance. Intense negotiations and technical planning amounted to years of disagreements over the name, location and allocation of responsibilities between the partners, as well as the presence of China’s Einstein Engines megacorporation, which offered to finance a great portion of the initial effort. Soon however, the advent of the Second Great Depression and the following Interstellar War in the mid-late 2200’s saw a bankrupt Alliance put a halt to any colonization projects, resulting in the plans being shelved. The war took a great toll on the core Solarian worlds, including Earth and its nations which were called to provide manpower, funds and materiel for the Solarian Navy. Federal China’s economy tanked completely under the pressure, relying on IMF bailouts and stays of payment on the salaries of its public sector, with pensionaries and students being most severely hit, resulting in massive social upheaval which would have long lasting consequences for the country’s financial hegemony in the post-war region.<br />
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As peace and relative stability returned, the Alliance found a newly independent, sizable and embittered Coalition of Colonies rival its claims in the Galactic East, calling for the presence of military garrisons and naval stations to protect the border. It was at this time that colonization projects were beginning to reemerge, with the Pacific Pact racing once more to submit a viable plan for a colony that would represent East Asia. A fatigued China could no longer bear the incredible costs it aspired to as the leader of the colonial venture before the war, giving significant leeway to the other two partners and largely retreating behind its megacorporation, Einstein Engines, which was still willing to back the endeavor. An aggressive Korean delegation largely dictated terms, giving birth to the “Konyang Project”, named after the Konyang University in which the colonial undertaking was revealed and presented to the public in 2299.<br />
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===Early Colonial Period | 2304 - 2400s===<br />
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[[File:solyang_flag.png|thumb|right|The flag of Konyang under Alliance administration.]]<br />
The plan envisioned five convoys for the establishment of four primary settlements on a strategically placed planet selected by the Solarian Navy for the support of local naval operations against any threats from the Frontier Alliance. The targeted planet was revealed to be a lush world first discovered in 2278 by a long-range scouting probe, dominated by water and possessing a breathable atmosphere, placing it in a prime position to sustain Human civilization. The quickly named “Haneunim” solar system possessed a few more bodies of secondary importance, and the first convoy was scheduled to launch on the 10th of March 2304, from the Wenchang spaceport in South China, to meet the long-distance freighters in orbit of Luna that would carry the first 5,000 colonists to Konyang. The ethnic mix-up of the colonists were equally distributed amongst the three nationalities, with all being volunteers and 646 of them under the employ of Einstein Engines.<br />
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It took the warp-propelled convoy one year to reach its destination, traversing light years of Solarian vastness before meeting the Navy squadron which would escort them to the planet, with touchdown being made on September 8th, 2305. Konyang was covered in jungles and great mountain ranges, requiring great labor from the men and women of the expedition to create the first settlement, under the direction of officers from the Department of Colonization. Two months later, Unity Station would receive the first signal passed along by the Navy, originating from beacon Number 22890/223, Designation ‘SUWON’. The foundations had been laid. In the following decades, all five convoys would come to form the basis of the “Konyang Territory”, a colony directly controlled by the Alliance and the Solarian Navy as the base of the 58th Fleet. Boosted by its status as a naval base, the abundance of freshwater and with the backing of Einstein, all three cities were realized; Suwon and Boryeong, New Hong Kong, and Aoyama, each at the start holding ethnic majorities of Koreans, Chinese and Japanese respectively.<br />
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===The Robotics Boom | 2407 - 2430s===<br />
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Despite the acceptable climate and near unlimited freshwater, the colonial government soon realized an alarming lack of mineral resources, forcing a complete reliance on external trade and supplies from the Navy for any and all industrial goods and even basic construction materials, a reality which had to be corrected as fast as possible. A planet-wide scanning expedition was organized, while “patriotic aid” was fervently being fundraised in China, Japan and Korea for nearly a whole century to cope with the colonists' increasing demands. This led to a landmark moment in the history of Konyang, when on the 21st of April 2404, mining teams dug into a collapsed tunnel outside the vicinity of Aoyama, discovering a defunct mining drone, crushed by tonnes of rock and soil. The chassis appeared broken and old, though its very presence implied the exploitation of the planet by a different civilization.<br />
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The device was hurried back in secrecy to a panel of dumbfounded colonial officials, who deemed that their corporate partners would be more suited in tracking down its origin. As such, after a quick formality bid behind closed doors, the Alliance sold off its odd piece of government property to Einstein Engines whose scientists saw it as a curious case worth pursuing. Month after month, the Terraneus Diagnostics laboratory in Aoyama kept receiving bits and pieces from similar drones recovered from abandoned, centuries-old mineshafts, culminating in the 2406 discovery of a sealed vault containing a great number of intact mining drones. The severity of this discovery was immediately apparent to the scientists. Words were had with the governor of Konyang by the local Einstein Engines representative, and it was decided to keep the drones a very closely-guarded secret - with only select Terraneus and government officials even being aware of their existence at all, let alone what was being done with them.<br />
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The Terraneus research team worked feverishly, though in secret, for months upon months. Staff were quietly shipped in from offworld in order to not alert outside observers, and the team continued to work upwards of eighty hour weeks in order to crack the drones. In mid-2407, they achieved one of the most remarkable breakthroughs in recent scientific memory by cracking the AI algorithms of the drones. Information of this moved rapidly from the local Einstein Engines office up the corporate chain and moved equally rapidly up the government's chain from provincial office to Sol itself. The information spread like wildfire, and humanity now had the secret of AI despite not truly knowing from where or who these machines came from. This was little more than a footnote to the Nralakk Federation - to them, these AI were crude and hardly approached the machines that had driven their civilization to ruin.<br />
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The robotics boom of Konyang caused a variety of benefits and harms to the previously marginal outer ring planet. The economy ballooned massively, as did its standard of living and industries. Konyang moved from a rural backwater that exported food and water to a high-tech planet that still exported basic goods, but primarily focused upon robotics. Megacorporations flocked to the planet: Einstein Engines, already present through Terraneus, rapidly secured dominance over the planet; Hephaestus Industries struggled with Einstein dominated competition before selling its factories over to local government control in 2427; and Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals, despite its skrell benefactors, purchased rights to examine the planet's biosphere from Einstein. The fact that their prosthetic limbs were originally designed on this planet has been stated to be a "happy coincidence" by its board. Due to the mass arrival of corporations, jobs were readily available - the planet was booming.<br />
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A massive migration wave of Einstein employees and their families to Aoyama made the city wrangle the spot of first in importance from the nominal capital of Suwon, to the point where the expatriate scientific community and their dependents outnumbered the local Japanese original colonists. The city quickly became known to Humanity as “Point Verdant”, the name assigned to the Terraneus Diagnostics laboratory in Aoyama, while the parent countries on Earth invested billions to capitalize on the success of their colonial project, to lift the planet into a modern world and reap the public relations benefits of their colony achieving a breakthrough in artificial intelligence.<br />
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The rapid expansion of Konyang's industries and cities had overtaxed the limited bureaucracy on the planet to the breaking point, and architects were in short supply. Urban planning on Konyang is estimated to be some of the worst in Alliance space outside of New Hai Phong as a result, with cities such as Point Verdant often having haphazard roads running through them and districts smashed together with no apparent rhyme or reason - a legacy of corporate jockeying for areas of interest, and the municipal corruption that came with it. There are countryside facilities originally utilized for drone research and retrieval that have, in recent years, fallen into disuse and disarray. Such facilities often dot the mountains and foothills of Konyang, slowly being overtaken by nature - sometimes with unfortunate results when these facilities have been improperly stripped of dangerous materials. The environment also suffered in areas where drones were found - jungles were cut or burnt away by corporations in order to get at the precious drones below, prefab buildings were orbitally dropped and erected, and landing zones were cut into the landscape itself.<br />
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The stormy tidal waves so infamous for tormenting the early colonists were tamed through the building of sea walls, a comprehensive road network linked the remote villages with the urban centers, and the city of Ganzaodeng was raised from the rocky desert. The Konyanger conglomerate PACHROM would mark the rise of the first native Chaebols, building shipyards, dams, hydroelectric plants and the first space fleet capable of ferrying enormous capacities of water across interstellar systems.<br />
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===The Positronic Integration | 2410s===<br />
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Soon enough, IPCs entered production on the planet, making Konyang one of the first places to embrace the positronic revolution. The limited resources saw higher prices, lessening the availability of domestically produced frames. Furthermore, the still rudimentary waterproofing technologies meant that IPCs could not work for long hours without shelter, ensuring that human jobs would remain safe from automation. When in the rest of Sol IPCs were produced en-masse for labor, Konyanger IPCs were more integrated in white-collar employment and indoors service-related work. Meanwhile, a growing media culture based on animation combined with the Konyanger recycle-friendly attitude, giving newer generations a fresh look on positronic intelligence, one that valued them as people rather than a disposable resource. The lack of widespread automation never brought the anti-synthetic sentiment so common in the rest of Sol, and IPCs in time became a unique cultural phenomenon in the colony’s urban centers.<br />
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Solarian laws governing the relations between IPCs and mankind were nominally enforced on Konyang, barring synthetics from gaining their own freedom, a fact which remained a thorn between the more liberal, younger Konyangers and the older generations. Einstein Engines allied with the Solarian governorship to press for the continuing status of Konyang as a colony, preventing elections and thus any liberal political influence from threatening the company’s grip on its synthetic workforce. This however, did not prevent Konyanger society to further integrate IPCs, even if the concept of universal citizenship for all synthetics was still far from publicly accepted. Aoyama was most receptive to the positronics, as a center of research and culture, with IPCs welcomed in people’s houses, treated like family and celebrated in festivals and even religious ceremonies. Suwon sentiment remained ambivalent, though many Solarian officials and naval officers expressed most severe concerns, in many cases pressing for crackdowns and questioning the morals of Konyanger citizens. The denizens of New Hong Kong and Ganzaodeng on the other hand, were most unhappy, with the powerful Chinese factory and shipyard labor unions remaining vocally opposed to IPC rights in the workplace, owing to their ties with the wider Solarian unions.<br />
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The profound effects of the emergence of this positronic culture were soon felt across the planet, change being heralded through a wave of demonstrations in mid to late 2412. High school and university students in Aoyama took to the streets to call for synthetic rights, in one of the few instances of pro-IPC disturbances on Solarian soil. In particular, the students called for the immediate emancipation of owned synthetics, marching from the main First Avenue down to the Governor's House and being joined by crowds of people and IPCs alike. The Aoyama Constabulary alongside Terraneus security forces were ordered to put a swift end to the march, resulting in the first major incident since the founding of the colony. Over 400 student injuries were recorded, the crowds responding with rocks and branches to the authorities’ tear gas and water cannons. 247 arrests were made that day, sparking additional outrage in the student movement as the ringleaders were tried as adults and given lengthy prison sentences. Smaller incidents were also noted in Suwon and Boryeong, marking 2412 as a year of upheaval and social change, laying the foundations for full IPC citizenship.<br />
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===Late Colonial Period | 2410s - 2440s===<br />
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As Konyang left behind the troubled ’10s and social peace returned through decrees permitting local city authorities to afford certain permissions for IPCs. This followed the final robotics' boom peak in the 2430s, seeing the planet’s GDP growth reach new levels. The colony’s industrial potential skyrocketed, with hundreds of hydroelectric dams, sea walls and shipyards creating thousands of new jobs in New Hong Kong, the new industrial core of Konyang. Labour relations shifted dramatically, as the new Hephaestus-pioneered industrial chassis enabled IPCs to work in the most difficult of conditions, sidelining and driving off the all powerful Gwongfu labor unions, with human employees forced into the urban centers and Ganzaodeng, contributing to a skyrocketing of the local IPC population in the prefecture.<br />
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Suwon saw a significant rise in business activity with the outside world, emboldening private ventures to the neighboring Frontier Alliance, bringing in massive profits from moss and entertainment exports. The animation industry reached new heights, with hundreds of new studios producing pioneering and high quality work, including classics like “One Day in My Life” and “Tomonomimi”, two of the most highly acclaimed works of media in recent Solarian memory. The entertainment sector brought new life to the Konyanger tourism industry as well, with more and more people rediscovering the distant hidden gem tucked deep in the fringes of the Alliance. The Suwon Stock Exchange was listed for the first time in the Chicago Financial Review, Sol’s most coveted investment periodical, as “Upcoming”, leading to billions of credits flowing in the country from abroad.<br />
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New chaebol conglomerates emerged, replacing even Einstein products with widely successful “Local, Cheaper and Better” campaigns. While Gwok Foods was making headlines in 2439 as the most successful Konyanger “IPC-inspired” exporter by yearly gross tonnage, the Ayame Motor Corporation created the first “completely Konyanger” 2-seat automobile designed for the cramped roads of Suwon and Point Verdant, becoming an instant hit. The Boryeong based Mujigae Publishing brought comics back into the youth’s hands, and Konymation had expanded to control cinemas, movie production studios, theme parks and restaurant chains in its ever expanding media empire.<br />
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===Independence and Present Day | 2462 - Present===<br />
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The Mars Violet Dawn catastrophe of 2462 signaled an era of widespread uncertainty and energy insecurity for the entirety of the Sol Alliance, with the Spur-wide phoron crisis exacerbating the situation for the Alliance’s Middle and especially Outer Ring colonies. A Konyanger recession in the late 2450s had already stretched the colonial government thin, with riots over the cost of living and unemployment in New Hong Kong and Suwon making national news for years on end. As the shaken corporations entered discussions on how they would survive the ever increasing phoron costs, it was made clear to everyone that the Alliance could not, and would not fund the refitting of the corporate fleets with the new Suzuki-Zhang Hammer Drive engine, threatening the complete cutoff of Konyang from outer space should the local Bluespace gate fail. Only a few Einstein vessels and the 58th Fleet stationed on the planet remained as the only reliable link between Konyang and the Spur.<br />
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The shortage soon hit the domestic market, leading to dangerous price increases for even the most essential of supplies. The average Konyanger saw their purchasing power plummet, as salaries remained stagnant in the face of a decreasing supply. The colonial Governor Hyun Kyung-Ho, turned to the only emergency option left, Earth. It was not the first time that Patriotic Aid was raised in China, Korea and Japan, though this time it proved most underwhelming. As the call for help fell on ears of men that could not even help their own economies, the trophy colony had to be abandoned to its own devices, with many in the East Asian public accusing Konyangers of greed and forgetting them in their apogee of financial success. With this last link to the past cut off, the question and possibility of independence soon started circling.<br />
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There was no time for serious debate however, with the Alliance being plunged into rebellion and collapse. On November 12, the 58th Fleet hastily departed Konyang, declaring a state of emergency in the system and abandoning the colonial government to its fate. Only elements of the Solarian Army and the Constabularies remained to maintain order, themselves being composed almost entirely of local Konyanger enlisted. The situation immediately turned into unrest, as public sentiment against the ineptitude of the Alliance boiled over into the streets. Massive student protests saw the storming of public buildings and central plazas in every major town and city, demanding a sharp reduction to the cost of living, IPC emancipation and a barring of the 58th Fleet from returning. Government reaction was mild, limited to the prevention of damages and protection of private property. Hyun Kyung-Ho was otherwise sympathetic to the students’ cause, sparking outrage within groups of Alliance-minded Army officers and Einstein corporate elites, who sought to prevent any secession of Konyang.<br />
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Thus, on November 15 2462, elements of the Army garrison under Lieutenant General Jiang Hongbing mobilized against the wishes of the Governor, taking up key positions in Suwon and Point Verdant. The mutinous 8th Sappers infiltrated the historic SUWON beacon telecommunications complex, preparing the country for a silent coup and preventing any long range communications with Sol. Jiang Hongbing, inspired by actions of mutinous admirals, took it upon himself to restore Konyang to the Alliance by marching the Army into the streets. While some of the formations under his command were willing to participate, the vast majority refused to bear arms against the Konyanger Governor or the student movements. In the following day, an internal power struggle saw many officers confined to their quarters, with Army hardliners being arrested, chased off or even assaulted in their own barracks as a loyalist armored brigade blocked access to the Governor’s House, preventing Hongbing’s men from touching Hyun Kyung-Ho.<br />
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With the coup’s inglorious end visible, the Governor’s staff were racing into negotiations with diplomatic officers from Coalition of Colonies still in the country for an express accession into the Coalition, following Konyang’s independence. Jiang Hongbing’s associates surrendered, himself fleeing into the thick jungles of Boryeong Prefecture, declaring a patriotic struggle in the Alliance’s name before soon being betrayed and confined at the 58th base’s Brig. On November 24 2462, telecommunications were restored, and Konyanger independence was broadcast to the world. The country’s preliminary accession into the Coalition was soon after announced, turning a new leaf in Konyang’s history. While the news was received with muted reaction from a confused Alliance government with more pressing matters to handle, the secession of Konyang was a huge blow to the three parent countries. After Governor Hyun Kyung-Ho assembled the nation’s intellectuals, economic and political figures, it was decided that he would remain in place as independent Konyang’s first Governor to organize free elections and set up the foundations for a democratic state.<br />
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Now, as a free Konyang comes out to the world stage, strong government initiative has seen its large synthetic factories nationalized, rapidly introducing legislation to establish the relationship with Einstein Engines. While they still are the dominating megacorporation on the planet, Einstein has lost most of its heavy industry, though still retaining the important research facilities around the vaults, as well as a good portion of software and positronic brain creation.<br />
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==Location and Environment==<br />
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===The Haneunim System===<br />
The Haneunim System, centered around the yellow star it is named for, Haneunim, contains four major celestial bodies, including the planet of Konyang. The whole system bears evidence of ancient mining operations, missing an asteroid belt to separate the inner and outer system with what few rocks remain being mostly picked clean of minerals.<br />
* '''Huozhu'''<br />
The innermost planet is known as Huozhu and remains practically inaccessible due to the scorching heat of Haneunim. Unmanned drones have indicated that the planet, which is visible to the naked eye on Konyang, is greatly lacking in any mineral wealth and has no atmosphere to speak of.<br />
* '''Hwanung'''<br />
The second planet from Haneunim, Hwanung, is an insignificant dwarf planet believed to have maintained a thin arid atmosphere before most of its mass was artificially stripped away. While relatively close to Konyang and far cooler than Huozhu, observation and a handful of expeditions revealed that most of the planet's crust had been artificially stripped away, exposing its solid, icy mantle. Konyanger exogeologists continue to survey the planet from time to time and PACHROM has obtained a permit to mine ice in order to meet their quotas to Orepit.<br />
* '''Qixi'''<br />
The third planet in the System is Konyang, accompanied by its lifeless moon of Qixi. Qixi is noteworthy for housing a KASF base and shipyard, the Konyanger military's largest off-planet possession; while more prestigious than working aboard one of the KASF's orbital stations, being posted here is considered boring by some. Some in the government have discussed plans to build more shipping hubs on the moon, akin to Biesel's own Valkyrie, but these talks have largely remained academic due to adequacy of Konyang's existing spaceport facilities.<br />
* '''Shiranui'''<br />
Shiranui, a ringed gas giant colored blue thanks to its methane composition, is the outermost planet from Haneunim. Prior to the discovery of phoron, private companies operated over three dozen methane-harvesting facilities in orbit around Shiranui. That number has dwindled down to just thirteen in the past few decades; the remaining workers, their families having often worked in the industry for many years, are usually bitter towards NanoTrasen. The Aerospace Forces keep a number of unmanned satellites around the gas giant in order to better monitor pirate and refugee activity.<br />
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An asteroid belt, far to the outskirts and composed mostly of ice, forms a ring around the entire system, although this remains largely unexploited by both the Konyanger government and local corporations. It is instead the stomping ground of both refugees fleeing the Sol Wildlands, and the pirates that seek to prey on them.<br />
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===Geography===<br />
[[File:Konyang_map_sat.png|A geographic map of Konyang, showcasing the planet's different biomes. |thumb|800px]]<br />
Primarily a tropical world smaller than Earth, Konyang boasts a mean radius of 5,111 kilometers. Freshwater oceans cover upwards of 88% of the planet’s surface. These oceans also grant Konyang its signature green color when viewed from orbit, in no small part thanks to the abundant presence of moss in the planet’s waterways. The planet’s continents are classified by its larger landmasses and island chains, although given the tides, the planet remains studded with small island chains and archipelagos that ebb and flow with the season. Two small ice caps exist on Konyang where the planet experiences a miniscule amount of snowfall and cold climates. The Konyanger terrain is principally mountainous, with large ranges covering vast areas of the planet’s landmasses. The tallest peak belongs to Mount Sansin, the highest mountain standing at a record 13.890 meters above sea level, its base forming an island of its own. Flanking the mountains are usually lush jungles, present in almost every island and continent in varying densities. This means that settlements have to be located in clearings adjacent to the coastline, on terrain with relatively even elevation. The largest and most dense jungle is located in Bukupo, an island in the heart of the Boryeong Prefecture. The largest landmass on the planet is Cheomseongtang, home of the Suwon prefecture and the nation’s capital. Other notable landmasses are the Oshima islands, hosting the largest mountain ranges, as well as the Yu islands, home of the only biome that could be described as a desert. New Hokkaido is the largest northernmost territory, renowned for its biodiversity and frosty tundra due to its proximity to the planet’s pole, as well as a unique lack of jungles. It is administered directly by the Government of Konyang, being the site of many scientific expeditions and military exercises, only boasting a population of a few hundred people.<br />
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===Environment===<br />
[[File:Konyang.png|An image of Konyang, displaying mossy oceans and algae-covered water as the face of the planet. |thumb]]<br />
Konyang features a highly atypical environment for a habitable planet: it is entirely freshwater. The surface of the planet is primarily oceans, with estimates placing upwards of 88% of the planet as covered in water. What is not under the sea are the islands of Konyang, where the vast majority of its population lives. These islands follow a general pattern: a small coastal area and a large mountain range ringing the island. The freshwater oceans of Konyang feature a remarkable diverse biosphere, and Konyang underwater flora, such as freshwater moss, is often used in the planet's native dishes and exported offworld, as far afield as Sol and Tau Ceti. Konyang is defined by two seasons: wet, lasting nine months, and dry, lasting three months.<br />
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The coastal regions of Konyang represent the smallest regions of its islands, but contain upwards of 90% of the planet's population. Often called the "coastal jungles" of Konyang, these areas are extremely wet - flooding is an issue in many areas, though the bulk of populated and urban areas are protected by extensive flood protection infrastructure, primarily lengthy complexes of walls. Coastal areas feature a wealth of plant and animal life, both of which have been put under stress by the rapid expansion of Konyang's cities.<br />
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Although Konyang’s coastal waters are often tinted green from moss, even more so than its oceans, harvesting and cleanup efforts along the coasts of the main and important islands have resulted in some sections of the planet appearing blue. These areas are often exploited for settlements and as tourist destinations for their scenic looks, while dedicated seaweed and algae farms dot the planet, providing an income for local villages and traditional producers. The most famous Konyanger food exporter, Go-Go Gwok!, has the largest involvement in the moss and seaweed industry.<br />
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The inland mountain ranges of Konyang can be up to several kilometers in height in some areas, with smaller foothills featuring some rare settlements leading up to them. These ranges, which are mostly devoid of any valuable minerals, are the reason for Konyang's jungles - they form an effective rain shadow. Some mountains have what is assumed to be collapsed mines in them, deactivated drones scattered throughout.<br />
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A phenomenon unique to the easternmost Yu islands of the Ganzaodeng prefecture, inland deserts are created due to the rain shadow caused by the surrounding mountain ranges. These are the least populated areas of the planet. Extraordinarily dry, little grows or lives in these environments. Rare Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals facilities can be found in this area, taking advantage of the isolation and relatively sterile environment that the inland deserts offer.<br />
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Lastly, the oceans of Konyang are regularly stormy, the large waves being harnessed for their energy in electricity production at numerous such outposts, scattered throughout the unpopulated islets in the farthest and most secluded areas.<br />
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===Flora and Fauna===<br />
Wildlife on Konyang is a peculiar mix of its original environment and the thousands of invasive species introduced by Human colonization. Species introduced in the initial colonization of the planet include huge herbivores and peaceful, if ecologically destructive, wildlife. Additionally, the large oceans are host to an uncountable number of species of fish, crustaceans and aquatic molluscs, with many being unique to their region of origin. Flora on Konyang is among its most famed aspects, spearheaded by the mossy shores and overgrowth which covers the vast majority of its visible terrain. All plant life which survives on Konyang must survive the extremely damp environment, and as such either thrives in the water, or is capable of moving away from it. Konyang's waters are famously covered in green moss and seaweed, giving it its signature color when viewed from orbit.<br />
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Some examples of unique flora and fauna are:<br />
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'''Shelfers'''<br />
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In the marsh and lowlands of Konyang's algae coasts resides an invasive species of large omnivores known as '''Shelfers.''' These are gluttonous moss-feasting beasts, with a distinct six-legged and bloated appearance. They are excellent swimmers, owed to webbed joints and a wedge shaped, slick head. From this, it uses a set of large protruding teeth to scrape moss and undersea growths. This creature is endangered, and displayed as a national animal thanks to its unique appearance. Originally a danger to unprepared colonization, these gained a reputation for its tendency to attack colonists.<br />
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These were first encountered by colonists who had shipped wildlife to and from Arusha, where escaped subjects managed to reproduce- over the years becoming a cultural icon due to their miraculous beneficial place they have in Konyang's ecosystem.<br />
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'''Konyanger Jeweler Cockatoo'''<br />
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Known for its affinity to decorate its nesting grounds with surface-level pearls and gems of all sorts is an opportunistic carnivore, the '''Jeweler Cockatoo.''' This large avian is an offshoot of the Earth parrot, bred originally to “liven the landscape” of Konyang’s dreary inner mountainous lands. Eventually, with the assistance of high-level genetic modification, they grew to giant proportions whilst maintaining the health and lifestyle of a standard - ''if highly dangerous'' - parrot. <br />
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Where small patches of forest and barrens clash, these birds thrive and craft beautiful roosts in the relative safety of open fields. In these fields, diminutive predators avoid the large avian’s glare (or don’t, and are frequently preyed upon.) The Jeweler Cockatoo possesses two sharp talons on one digit of each of its feet, and a short - but unbelievably sharp beak, refined further by its tendency to dig. The wingspan of these birds can grow up to fifteen feet.<br />
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The Jeweler Cockatoo is the national bird of Konyang, with many stylized imagery depicting the bird in some shape or form.<br />
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'''Glittering Konyang Moss'''<br />
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Found in vast plains of coastal territories in excess is the overflowing, yet precious resource of '''Konyang moss.''' One of its primary exports, this barely-tapped commodity retains a huge capacity to feed Konyang’s already sturdy ecosystem, and the billions which reside upon it, and more to export. The evolutionary process which grew this mystical, shimmering moss is a mystery, however its luster and fields of green it generates has a wonderful impact on sustaining Konyang’s moist, overgrown and greenery-rich habitat. <br />
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Konyang moss is pivotal to its moving industries, and even after the robotics boom, it remains a stable source of incoming development for the since-burgeoning planet. The moss’ nutritional properties have been highly studied in recent decades. Its rapid pace of growth is exclusive to Konyang’s ecological circumstances, with everything from subterranean heat, to the algae present in its beautiful green seas factoring in.<br />
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==Economy==<br />
While young, the nation of Konyang boasts a powerful regional economy built upon decades of trade with both the Alliance and various Coalition partners. A developed country, Konyang manages to surpass its near total lack of ore with robust exports of foodstuff and energy, a strong shipping industry and a powerful robotics sector.<br />
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===Raw Materials===<br />
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[[File:Konyang dam.png|thumb|Dams and sea walls are a common sight on Konyang, used to protect cities and population centres from floods and tsunamis, as well as to exploit the violent waves for electricity.]]<br />
Konyang's freshwater oceans were perhaps the largest boon to the starting colonists, and continues to play a substantial role behind the planet's exports. Fishing provides for a large aspect of the domestic economy, with millions of fishing boats and trawlers scouring the shores and oceans for all kinds of fish, crustaceans and other aquatic creatures, of which a complete list doesn't exist. Such is the biodiversity in Konyang's waters, that each region has its own fish markets which serve clients all over the planet and the Spur. Besides fishing, Konyang's biggest aquatic produce in terms of volume belongs to its enormous seaweed and moss harvesting industries. Entire ships are purpose-built for collecting wild greenery which floats on the high seas and the bays of Konyang, bringing in billions in offworld exports and domestic sales. The harvesting of moss is not exclusive to the sea and the aquatic farms either, as many edible varieties are collected inland, both in the planet's jungles and mountain ranges. Konyanger moss is Spur-renowned thanks to powerful marketing campaigns and the spread of the planet's cuisine.<br />
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With tremendously stormy wet seasons lasting most of the year, it is no surprise that Konyanger corporations have attempted and managed to harness the energy of the wind, waves and waters of the planet. Electricity is generated through a network of dams, hydroelectric plants, wave power stations and tidal power stations, all dotted across the vast shores and oceans of Konyang. The electricity produced is then either stored in super capacitors, or is directly wired inland through thick underwater cables, catering to the needs of virtually every power grid on the globe. Much of it is also transported on board space freighters lined with rows of large batteries, ready to make the journey to Alliance and Coalition worlds as part of the lucrative electricity export industry.<br />
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Lastly, Konyang excells in the export of water and timber. The continent-spanning untouched jungles provide an excellent source of wood for foreign markets as well as domestic construction, of which there is very heavy use in lieu of metal structures. The freshwater is also extremely easy to chemically filter, skipping any desalination process before being bottled or shipped as-is on board of one of many of Konyang's water barges; large hollow space vessels with tankers and pools for water storage.<br />
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===Maritime Shipping===<br />
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Surface shipping is another one of the main forces behind Konyang's domestic market economy, and an inseparable part of the nation's maritime culture. The docks and shipyards of New Hong Kong are the beating heart of the sector, which provides employment to more than 20% of the entire planet's population. Entire towns were formed and dedicated to housing the laborers and their families close to the coast, and many islands subsist entirely off of seamen's salaries and work at nearby electricity stations. Surface shipping, while slower, is a lot more economical for planetary moving of goods across the continents and islands of Konyang, being preferred to airlifting or orbital shuttling. Aside from the creation of jobs and the transportation of goods, Konyang's shipping industry produces excellent sailors who can rival those of planets such as Europa, many of whom eventually transition to space.<br />
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===Robotics and Services===<br />
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Ever since the robotics boom, Konyang has become a major player in the export and development of IPCs and everything surrounding them. Each year, the most cutting edge technologies catered to the improvement of the life of synthetics are released by Konyanger software companies, often to critical acclaim. This is because of the the substantial positronic population, free and eager to spend on such innovations that allow them to experience the world in a more human-like fashion. When it comes to the export of IPCs, Einstein Engines remains the prime manufacturer of chassis and positronic brains, which are shipped abroad without being activated. The practice, while putting Konyang on the map as one of the big regional producers of synthetics, is a hotly contested area between deeply entrenched corporate interests and an increasingly politically aware IPC populace. Non-positronic robotics are a separate, but once significant part of the economy, with Konyang having hoeld high places in the spur leaderboards for the making of robots, mechs, pAIs and automated systems. This sector however, took a major hit as the robotics boom slowly deflated, leaving behind abandoned industrial complexes and derelict factories.<br />
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The nation's service sector has to be one of the biggest ones, contributing a sizeable portion of the country's Gross Domestic Product. Many of the companies listed on the Suwon Stock Exchange are everything from financial consultation firms, to insurance agencies, housed in every majpr city's financial district. Skyscrapers and office complexes in downtown Suwon, Point Verdant and New Hong Kong are a daily reminder of the office life millions of Konyangers live, and many parents dream of their child being able to one day find employment in a top law firm or such. While mostly concentrated in the domestic market, many of these companies have expanded their services abroad, building a reputation of Konyanger reliability and impeccable work.<br />
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===Konyanger Corporations===<br />
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In terms of the traditional megacorporations, the undoubted hegemon remains Einstein Engines, entrenched in the planet's life since the beginning of Konyang's colonization. The megacorporation owns a number of subsidiaries on the planet in many different sectors, most notably, Terraneus Diagnostics, which regularly bankrolls and invests in government initiatives in exchange for their continuous presence. It retains the original research facilities and control over the vaults, even if IPC production and exports are now handled by the Konyang Robotics Corporation, a public company in which Einstein controls a 49% stake. The Terraneus facilities on the planet mainly handle shell research and positronic brain production for export to the Coalition, while they occasionally butt heads with Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals in the realm of IPC research. Zeng-Hu has the second-largest megacorporate presence, mainly in biosphere research and sales of pharmaceuticals. Despite this, local conglomerates generally dominate the country’s financial sector, commanding the government’s cooperation and good graces in order to keep a stable economy. Upon achieving independence, Konyang has managed to maintain a strong presence of homegrown corporations in the fields of agriculture, media, energy and consumer goods.<br />
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'''PACHROM'''<br />
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A chemical and engineering corporation, PACHROM builds, maintains and manages eighty percent of all private dams, hydroelectric plants and seawalls on Konyang, as well as engaging in the field of chemicals and plastics production. Headed by Park Moon-soo, the business mogul is vying for influence with the government as indispensable to the nation’s energy output and defence against floods and natural disasters, making the “Pachrom Parks” one of the richest and most powerful business dynasties on the planet. Headquartered in central Suwon, the bulk of PACHROM’s operations are located in diasporic, uninhabited islands in the middle of the world’s oceans, where hundreds of organic and synthetic workmen toil daily to run the water powered electricity plants in extremely dangerous conditions.<br />
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The company’s notorious reputation for neglecting the safety of its employees and the environmental disregard for waste disposal from its plastics factories has been a big stain the Parks have struggled to wash off. While their ties to both the Alliance administration and the Konyang government have proven instrumental in their ability to dodge damning legal action, demonstrations of public outcry are a common feature in and around the street opposite the PACHROM office complex. To counter this, public relations campaigns are a constant focus, with tens of millions being spent in portraying them in a positive light. Charities are a large part of the Park family’s social presence, sponsoring public works and offering scholarships mainly in the Boryeong and New Hong Kong prefectures, where the majority of employees originate.<br />
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Often finding itself without funds from Unity Station, the colonial administration would commission PACHROM in the form of lucrative contracts for the construction of dams and power stations, allowing the utilisation of synthetics and IPC for the dangerous labour required. Due to society’s favourable opinion towards positronic intelligence, the multitude of cases of IPC fatalities would be swept under the rug with government assistance, creating a culture of tolerance towards lacklustre safety features and general disregard. Today, PACHROM’s future remains uncertain as the newly independent state of Konyang wishes tends to distance itself from its shaky past, a fact indicated by the recent awarding of the Kaneyama nuclear plant to the public company GON-ENE.<br />
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'''Gwok Group'''<br />
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Founded in the early 2410s with the name Hyeonsang Foods, the precursor to today’s multinational food conglomerate was the first attempt at commercialising Konyang’s seaweed and moss both for export and internal consumption. Initially finding limited success due to an overly competitive local market and foreign consumers' reluctance to the Konyanger novelty, the company's defining moment arrived during the robotics boom, launching them from mediocrity into the billion credit business stage.<br />
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As Einstein Engines staff poured into Point Verdant, Hyeonsang secured a contract from the megacorporation's local branch for providing meals and miscellaneous catering to workers and research staff. The once alienated Einstein employees would soon come around, praising the brand for its flavourful seasoning and convenience, eventually spreading the word to Einstein facilities and back home. By the late 40s, Hyeonsang was on the track of significant financial success, having secured a large foothold in the foreign dominated central districts of Point Verdant.<br />
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Rebranding into the more consumer friendly “Gwok” name in 2452, the company’s reputation abroad led to the opening of regional branches in the Solarian middle and core worlds, generating an increasingly massive amount of income, used for an aggressive takeover of the local Konyanger market. By buying off competitors, monopolising the moss and seaweed industry and introducing new marketing, Gwok’s domestic success was soon guaranteed as the primary supplier of supermarkets. In 2454 the IPC Gwok-0783, until then a senior executive and the face of the company as the main influencer of the rebrand, assumed direct control as CEO of the conglomerate thus becoming the first IPC in charge of a billion credit corporation in Sol space. The following years would see the consolidation of all affiliated assets and filial companies under an umbrella Gwok Group, topping the charts and establishing a farming, food and restaurant chain empire.<br />
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'''Konymation'''<br />
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Konymation represents the peak of the Konyanger animated media scene, being by far the most successful and most well known studio in the country, with a Spur-wide fame. It arose in the early days of the robotics boom, creating a resurgency of animations for both children and adults. While the industry was almost non-existent and cheap Solarian cartoons were the norm, a group of inspired artists came together to animate and direct the first feature-length production from Konyang, using native voice actors and a brand new artstyle of their own. The result was "One Day in my Life", a slice of life film following the daily routine of an IPC secretary in a human-dominated world, becoming an instant hit with both domestic and foreign audiences. Since then, Konymation rose to become the largest studio of quality animations, creating films and series for all ages and of all genres. Such was the success, that any animated pieces from Konyang have passed into the public consciousness simply as "Konymations", referred to as such in both the planet and abroad. Since their foundation, the studio has developed into a media conglomerate, buying out holoscreen channels, online platforms, news networks and more.<br />
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'''Mujigae Publishing'''<br />
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The biggest publishing house, Mujigae is to the comic book industry what Konymation is to animation. Having created thousands of interesting and touching comic series, Mujigae is credited with bringing paper back into the hands of millions of Konyangers, in an age where digital platforms have become the default for nearly everything in life. Many of Mujigae's works find great demand abroad as well as at home, with the company being known for their efforts to constantly seek out and recruit new artists with fresh ideas. A plethora of published series often find themselves being adapted into the holoscreen in lucrative partnerships with Konymation, as well as the other way around. Additionally, Mujigae's philanthropic work cannot go unmentioned; millions of credits have found their way to various charities on Konyang, primarily those regarding the children, the money drawn from art festivals and comicons that are hosted annually, often with the participation of the Ministry of Culture. <br />
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'''Konyang Robotics Corporation'''<br />
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The Konyang Robotics Corporation, or KRC as is more commonly known, is the country's largest government-controlled company centered around the manufacture, maintenance and welfare of the nation's positronic population. Borrowing heavily from Einstein know-how and infrastructure, it originated from the nationalization of Einstein and Terraneus IPC factories, with the majority of their employees swapping over to a government payroll. Einstein Engines controls 49% of the shares of the company, lending it tremendous behind-the-scenes influence on Konyang's synthetic population.<br />
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The primary function of the KRC is the production, storage and activation of IPC citizens. A very politically and socially sensitive topic, great care is placed by the government through the Ministry of Health and Positronic Affairs to meticulously calculate and order the amount of yearly activations, so as to maintain the Human-IPC ratio and meet the demands of the job market. To that effect, the KRC also acts as a sort of "school" for the newly activated IPC citizens, with special orientation camps where synthetics are taught about Konyanger society before released to the world.<br />
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Furthermore, the KRC acts as the primary health provider for Konyanger IPCs, with clinics and hospitals situated in every town and city, as well as strategically placed in certain villages in the countryside. Thousands of roboticists, engineers and software technicians are employed by the KRC to act as the equivalents of surgeons, physicians, nurses and paramedics for the IPC population, who are afforded universal healthcare through the KRC. Appointment times are dependent on location and the capacity of the clinic or hospital, with many in more remote areas having to wait months for limb replacements and other, more heavy duty needs that cannot be met by their local KRC center.<br />
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'''GON-ENE'''<br />
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GON-ENE is a newly formed, state-controlled energy utilities company, created following the announcement of the Kaneyama Nuclear Power Plant. Perceived as a direct competitor to PACHROM, GON-ENE has been planned to expand into hydroelectric and wave power, giving the government a greater control of the nation's power grid and cutting back reliance on privately-owned sector, though complete autarky is off the table for at least many decades.<br />
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==Government==<br />
''Main Article: [[Konyanger Government and Politics#Government|Konyanger Government]]''<br />
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Konyang is organized as a unitary semi-parliamentary republic headed by a President, the former colonial governor Hyun Kyung-Ho being elected to the position after independence. The Prime Minister is elected by the citizenry every four years, and is the leader of the governing party in the Parliament of Konyang. The current Prime Minister is Myeong Myung-Dae.<br />
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Planetary politics are found on both a national and prefectural level, with every party running in local and national elections. Polarization is fairly limited, the vast majority of Konyangers rejecting the extreme views put forward by radical political movements in the country that tend to be marginalized. IPC politicians do exist and are found in every major party, though most can be seen sitting with the National Party of Konyang.<br />
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===Military===<br />
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[[File:Marine.png|thumb|right|An IPC Konyanger Naval Infantryman in full gear.]]<br />
Konyang’s military, also known as the Konyang Armed Forces, was first formed shortly after the colony’s independence from personnel of the former Solarian garrison. As a result, it carries a lot of the traditions of the Solarian Armed Forces. Bolstered by conscription laws requiring both organic and synthetic citizens one year of mandatory service, the KAF possesses Army, Navy and Aerospace branches. IPCs are actively recruited and accepted into the military, forming both their own and deployed in mixed units. This segregation is justified by the government as based solely on the differentiating capabilities, logistical needs and skills between man and machine.<br />
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That claim does hold true to an extent, with IPCs taking a more active role in special forces formations, dealing with operations requiring levels of precision and focus that artificial intelligence can easily provide. A famous example is the army’s Mechatronic Corps, an elite unit utilising large, leftover battle mechs retrofitted for a pair of pilots. Such a force is unique in the Coalition, and is often used abroad in operations under broader CoC military command. Mixed infantry units of conscripts do exist, fielded in jungle patrol tasks or assigned garrison duty.<br />
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Notably for a 25th century military, the Navy maintains a very large aquatic force which it uses to patrol the vast oceans of the planet. Regularly described as more of a coast guard than a military arm, it is more geared for domestic policing than combat, consisting mostly of ships acting as launching points for many smaller, coast guard type vessels that patrol the vast expanse of the planet’s waterways and launch military aircraft. Nevertheless, it provides important services with its multiple telecommunication, radar and island outposts, providing crucial meteorological information for everyday seafaring and flood prevention on a planet where storms and extreme weather are the norm.<br />
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The Konyang Aerospace Forces perform both atmospheric and orbital operations with their doctrine clearly influenced by former Solarian officers within their ranks. Their fleet consist of obsolete vessels donated by Coalition planets, partially brought up to a modern standard by the planet’s technology and manufacturing sector. In 2465, the KASF’s main tasks include protecting the system from pirates and policing the large influx of refugees from the Human Wildlands, regularly pushing them to other planets within the Coalition as per Konyang’s strict migration laws.<br />
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===National Police===<br />
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[[File:Konyanger Police Ranks.png|thumb|In order to organize the National Police and smooth cooperation between prefectures, a unified rank structure was adopted shortly after its formation.]]<br />
Despite its federal nature, the main law enforcement agency on the planet is the National Police, formed after Konyang’s independence from the merging of a number of local and specialised agencies under the then Solarian authority. One major change since then has been the introduction of synthetic officers in all positions and ranks, while also creating special divisions suited best for them. Police gear remains rather antiquated for the era, the force still using old Solarian equipment and stocks from the colonial garrison, meaning that much of the tactics and thinking remain unchanged. Considered tame by Alliance standards, the National Police places an emphasis on preventative policing, building rapport with local communities, and relying on a sense of civic duty from the populace to perform its duties. Despite this, the National Police has nonetheless received criticism for occasional incidents of corruption and brutality, mostly against synthetic citizens. This is more common in remote departments and conservative prefectures, where the sudden inclusiveness of synthetic officers with equal pay and opportunities is seen as a threat. Such incidents aside, government efforts for the modernisation of the National Police are ongoing.<br />
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The police is subject to the Ministry of Public Safety in Suwon and is organised at the national level, with local departments answering to the assigned hierarchy in their prefecture. Special divisions are deployed to deal with various policing duties, their size ranging from a whole new branch to Special Robotics detachments specialising in detainment of volatile synthetic suspects. The largest of these subdivisions and arguably the most important, the Coast Guard is the maritime arm of the National Police, operating a fleet of shore and sea patrol vessels in their mission to enforce the law at the huge array of islands and in Konyang’s waters. As the planet is surrounded by oceans, the Coast Guard has proven itself essential to the battle against smuggling and piracy while also assuming search and rescue duties during flooding, tsunamis and other catastrophes. The National Police has also gained Coalition-wide acclaim for its Special Robotics Division - a task force known for its expertise in detaining IPC without causing permanent damage.<br />
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==Culture==<br />
''Main article: [[Konyanger_Culture_and_Society|Konyanger Culture]]''<br />
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Konyang’s culture has been shaped by its East Asian Earther heritage, unique status as a colony with little to no resources, and as the birthplace of positronics. Konyanger society is often described as closed-off, with many unspoken social norms that vary from prefecture to prefecture. Key social norms that are shared in Konyang’s culture are Harmony, Reciprocity, and Face. Often derided as “meekness”, Harmony refers to enforcing unity and conformity within society. The specific manifestations vary from prefecture to prefecture, but in general, individuals who disrupt a sense of peace can face social ostracization. For instance, explicit disagreement such as using the word “no” is considered impolite, and a non-answer is often far more acceptable. Harmony also refers to a person’s social role; respect should be shown to people of a higher status, usually along traditional lines such as age, profession, and experience.<br />
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===Media===<br />
''Main article: [[Konyanger_Culture_and_Society#Media|Media]]''<br />
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Public media in Konyang is a powerful industry, and as broad as it may seem, it is very tightly knit. Aside from galactic-wide reruns and broadcasts of other nation’s shows, little seems to stand out - except the audio broadcast and illustrated artistic avenues. These two are well-refined artistic giants compared to other forms of entertainment on the planet.<br />
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A huge portion of the planet’s political views and very “personality” are channeled through its larger studios, where many are found enthused to spread its culture galaxy-wide.<br />
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===Cuisine===<br />
The primary diet of Konyangers consists of moss, seaweed and fish, with farms and pastures on land being rare due to the thick jungle. Konyang's moss is either harvested in the wild, grown in "natural" hydrofarms, or grown synthetically in bioplants. The moss itself is said to change its taste depending on the environment in which it is grown, and natural moss from the coasts around Konyang's islands is highly prized. Exports of moss and seaweed are a very lucrative business, held primarily by the galaxy-famous Go-Go Gwok! brand. Many workers, however, must make do with hydrofarm moss at best, and synthetic substitutes at worst. Konyang's fish - quite diverse, due to its freshwater environments - are also often consumed on the planet, with many being exported as luxury food as far afield as Venus and Tau Ceti. More conventional but water-intensive crops such as rice and other tropical fruits are also grown to a certain extent but are considered a rarity.<br />
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The planet is also home to a thriving beverages industry, with local varieties of algae providing the basis of a light but thick alcoholic drink colloquially known as “Nong jiu” domestically and abroad. The wide selection of produce on the planet however means more traditional drinks are produced, typically drawing from their Earther roots and commonly based on rice. Some of these drinks are exported by local businesses such as Go-Go Gwok! while Zeng-Hu has wrestled to control some of these brands in an attempt to stop them from competing with their own lineups.<br />
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===Synthetic Cuisine===<br />
Synthetic-unique cuisine is an unusual case in the Spur, but not for Konyang. Here, robots utilize gustatorial implants to - if inefficiently - consume, or at least “taste” food regularly. Indeed, there is an entire market for synthfood where robots can enjoy their own form of taste, texture and uniquely perceptive flavor for foods. Mostly, synthfood is described as a thick slime, one with varying additives for color. Texture is mostly a simulated process within gustatorial implants, given they are not always present on tongues alone - meaning that the actual texture of these synthfoods remains the same gooey substance.<br />
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''One can achieve a similar substance to these synthfoods mechanically by grinding certain foods into paste, or utilizing candy machines with your choice of ingredients and output.''<br />
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==Organized Crime==<br />
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=====Benevolent Guild=====<br />
The Benevolent Guild is a criminal organisation operating primarily within the decrepit, dark shadows of New Hong Kong. Originating as a mutual aid society for low income and forced penal colonists shipped into New Hong Kong by the Alliance government, it developed into a ruthless crime syndicate with strong ties to the local lower class community. From the start, the tightly knit communal and familial ties have played an important role in preserving the gang’s power and shielding them from police action. Only in recent years has any meaningful progress been made, the allocation of governmental resources and the increasingly violent and profit-oriented tactics of the Guild having alienated much of the younger generation, chipping away at the once widely popular support.<br />
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Starting with extortion and loan sharking, the Benevolent Guild rapidly expanded into gambling, drugs and violent crime such as kidnapping both in New Hong Kong and in New Kowloon. It is not uncommon for synthetics that find themselves victims of the group’s loan shark tactics to be ‘collected’ as collateral damage and subsequently carted off to whichever corner of the Orion Spur where their new owners await them usually at a far cheaper rate than elsewhere. One of the few institutions on Konyang refusing to admit synthetics owing to a deeply conservative and spiritually esoteric internal ideology, a pragmatist outlook often compels them to deal with and even cooperate with IPC politicians, police and rival gangs. Connections with criminal organisations in the wider Spur have been confirmed to exist, as various crime syndicates in Xanu, New Hai Phong and Luna are known to be in connection with the Benevolent Guild.<br />
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=====5-Cheung=====<br />
Emerging as one of the strongest IPC/organic street gangs of Suwon, the 5-Cheung numbers in the thousands of members in the cities of the Suwon and Point Verdant prefectures. The organisation’s origin as a loose collective of delinquents and fringe elements has since developed into a nationwide crime family with a powerful hierarchy fielding biker gangs and thugs to enforce their tight grip on the underworld. With a black repertoire of gambling, extortion, money laundering and narcotics, the 5-Cheung is considered a main rival to the Benevolent Guild of New Hong Kong, the two frequently coming to blows in a series of wars and uneasy truces over control of turf and general competition.<br />
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An open secret in the country’s political sphere has the 5-Cheung profit lucratively from corruption in the highest levels of government and police. During the Solarian era, prominent politicians employed protection from the 5-Cheung, soliciting their services in voter swaying, intimidation of opposition members and violent disruption of rallies and demonstrators. This has given the gang a justified reputation for being the political soldiers of ruling dynasties and representing the authorities in the underworld and on the street in exchange for immunity from prosecution. Following Konyang’s independence, the reformed National Police retained a virtually unchanged staff while the nation’s same prominent political families, now unshackled from Alliance oversight, enjoy even more freedom. As such, it is safe to say that 5-Cheung’s entrenched position will continue to remain untouched aside from the occasional drug bust and arrest of low level members.<br />
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=====Sea Bandits=====<br />
Although both the previous colonial administration and the nascent Konyanger Armed Forces and Coast Guard have tried to stamp out piracy, the sheer expanse of the planet means that groups of what the authorities call “sea bandits” continue to infest the waters and orbit of Konyang. Ranging from small motor boats launched from fishing villages with nothing more than an antique rifle, to retrofitted probes salvaged from the refugee waves pouring into the system, piracy is one of the most pressing social and security issues faced by the newly formed nation.<br />
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Individual pirate groups usually number no greater than twenty people but the Sea Bandits as a whole operate as a wider criminal network inclusive of individuals and crews from all over the planet. By coordinating their activities and intelligence through encrypted sites, the organisation manages to both evade and stay one step ahead of the authorities. Most of their activities take the form of kidnapping, armed robbery of craft and hijacking unescorted seafarers, while admittedly avoiding the busiest and well guarded sealanes and locations. The most audacious raid by the Sea Bandits to date involved the boarding and ransoming of a cruise ship by the use of an unregistered freighter. Although only circumstantial evidence has been uncovered, Golden Deep Zaibatsu have also been accused of working with Sea Bandit groups by launching probes full of narcotics, to be recovered by the pirates.<br />
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==Synthetics on Konyang==<br />
As the origin of the integrated positronic chassis now found throughout the Orion Spur, Konyang has always had a quite unique relationship with IPCs, the IPC population constituting a staggering 34% of the total population. While IPCs throughout the Sol Alliance are often looked upon as little more than property, tools, or novelties depending upon their frame those found upon Konyang possessed a notably greater degree of autonomy and freedom before the planet’s secession from the rest of the Alliance, achieving full and unconditional freedom afterwards. Legal ownership of synthetics within the borders of the Republic does not exist, the Emancipation Act constituting one of the first acts passed by Parliament. IPCs can work wherever they like, live however they please within the confines of the law, and partake in politics by voting or being elected. As such, foreigners are repeatedly cautioned to not bring any privately held IPCs with them, for they cannot be forced to return unwillingly.<br />
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Ordinary Konyangers, as a result of the planet’s liberal outlook on positronics, possess a more positive view of synthetics than other humans in the Orion Spur - particularly those from the Sol Alliance and its former territories. The majority of people on Konyang view IPCs as amicable colleagues and neighbours, with many friendships between man and machine being established. Closer bonds such as marriage are also legalised and not unheard of, though not without outcries from the more conservative spectrum. Many scholars theorize that this is due to the prevalence of IPCs in daily life on Konyang, seamlessly blending into society, in addition to the pride many citizens have in their planet being the origin of the modern positronic. Konyang’s integration of IPCs stands with some degree of contrast to Biesel’s, with the large synthetic ghetto of District 14 segregating many synthetics from the average citizen of the Republic of Biesel.<br />
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With Konyang’s independence, IPCs share full legal equality with all organic citizens of the planet. This concession was given, both as an acknowledgement and acceptance of the fact that synthetics have become part of everyday life in the colony and are generally accepted by its inhabitants. Unlike the Republic of Biesel, IPCs in Konyang seek to assimilate into human society, with IPCs being given the choice to adopt a second, “human name” before receiving citizenship. A human name can range from an entirely new name, to adding a first or last name of any kind to their existing designation.<br />
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Many positronics can be found within the economy of Konyang with perhaps the most famous (or infamous) one being Gwok-0783 (now Kim Gwok-0783, under post-independence IPC naming conventions), the owner and operator of her very own food conglomerate in the form of Go-Go Gwok! Authentic Konyanger Moss. As Go-Go Gwok! is technically an interstellar corporation, Gwok-0783 herself relied on a series of legal loopholes centered around Konyang’s former IPC laws to maintain control of the company when Konyang was still in the Sol Alliance. Examples such as Gwok, with her control of an inter-planetary corporation, are fairly rare. However, many positronics have made a successful name for themselves as small business owners and corporate workers on Konyang.<br />
[[File:Konyang vault.png|thumb|A mysterious vault upon Konyang's surface, unearthed and built around with monitoring infrastructure.]]<br />
Due to the system’s bluespace gate, the [[Synthetic_Factions#The_Golden_Deep|Golden Deep]] has made great strides in establishing embassies and industry on Konyang. Now a contender with the Konyang Robotics Corporation, Golden Deep merchants have both been providing aid and competition to the businesses on Konyang after the Silicon Nightmares crisis. Konyang is now both a major business landmark for the Golden Deep, as well as a middle point to the more lucrative markets of Tau Ceti and the Jewel Worlds. The money and business brought into the system by these synthetic traders has - arguably - been a major contributor to Konyang’s more liberal laws and regulations regarding IPCs. Konyang, before its independence, was one of the few systems under Solarian control in which IPCs could own and operate a business. <br />
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The synthetic population in Konyang is regulated by the government. A set number of positronics are assembled each year under contract at Terraneus Diagnostics facilities in Point Verdant with the prospect of being granted citizenship after a 3 month life orientation period. The determined number is set annually by Parliament, backed up by the yearly census and statistics, with production increasing or decreasing depending on the number of human birth ratios, positronic shutdowns, and other factors. Expenses are met both through government funds and private donations, though debate on the matter is rarely heated as the amount of new brains numbers usually in the hundreds; a tiny fraction of positronics produced and exported in total. IPCs and positronics constructed for the purpose of selling them to a different country, are not covered by such regulations and are not given citizenship.<br />
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There are further regulations in robotics construction in Konyang. Any activated positronic brain can qualify under the Emancipation Act. Exceptions to the law exist for manufacturing and research, with Point Verdant in particular activating positronic brains for the sake of testing shells before shipping them off-world. The law has also sparked development in other fields of mechatronics, with Konyang beginning to lead the way in circuit-based robotics.<br />
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Despite gains for its IPC citizens, other positronic intelligences have not been so lucky. Although some brains have been repurposed as AI coordinators for cities; with no way to transition to humanoid frames, bound intelligences have been granted freedom, but often take contracts with corporations that result in a return to the old status quo, all for the sake of staving off destruction due to a lack of maintenance.<br />
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===Konyanger Augmentation of IPCs===<br />
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Augmentation on Konyang is a fascinating subject, where the presence of so many IPCs has brought success in modifying the Positronic body and mind. Famed explorations into the sectors of IPC modification include "sensory evolution," where synthetics' senses being amplified or dulled in extremes according to desire.<br />
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Primary among the delves into this evolution of the senses is the New Dawn Augmentation Movement. This is a Konyanger organization based on the improvement of the IPC lifestyle via modifying chassis, funded peculiarly by Terraneus Diagnostics. The movement is oddly organized as a non-profit, going against the corporation’s established modus operandi. This, coupled with the tantalizing opportunity to freely modify an IPC's form with donated funds leads to public skepticism of the augment movement’s motivations.<br />
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Still, the true size of the movement to augment and improve Konyang's IPC population is extraordinary in comparison to other stellar nations. Roughly 22% of Konyang IPCs have some form of corporate-funded augmentation to enhance themselves.<br />
[[File:Konyang augment1.png|thumb|A Konyanger design, the Scorpion Lobe is an augment which manipulates the perception of time for synthetics for better or worse.]]<br />
* '''SENSO-EVO/Scorpion Lobe'''<br />
A miraculous creation of Konyang's technological advancement, SENSO-EVO is the term aptly handed to Sensory Evolution's foremost product. This is the Scorpion Lobe, a similarly shaped attachment to the rear of a positronic brain which adjusts the rate at which the synthetic perceives time literally. The implications of this are seen as either a blessing or a curse — sometimes even utilized as a way to reduce problematic behavior in positronics.<br />
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These implants are commercialized to protect the integrity of brains which adopt extremely high speed tasks, or extremely tedious and slow ones, with a perception that best suits their given utility.<br />
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A double edged sword by nature, these are often removed by free positronic chassis due to their almost torturous nature. Some may find their lives flashing hours into moments, whilst others may find daily grinds to be impossibly long ordeals. Unfortunately, removing these implants is not always a safe procedure, sometimes damaging a brain or rendering the problem worse.<br />
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These were first manufactured by Hephaestus Industries on instrumental Konyang research facilities, and later acquired by Einstein Engines personnel in the same month - debates over the design’s origin have been ongoing since 2449.<br />
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===Recreational Software===<br />
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In the IPC community of Konyang, the culture of acceptance and freedom has always invited the curiosity of synthetics to imitate and follow human pastimes and habits. This in turn included activities such as smoking, synthetic flavours and eventually, recreational drugs. Due to the nature of the positronic, the only way to recreate such sensations is through software targeting and modifying specific programming in the brain. At first, this dangerous commodity was provided by amateur programmers using experimental and highly volatile code known as “overloaders”, leading to often irreparable and lethal damage to an IPC’s systems. The results of the few initial successes, however, proved promising enough for the idea to be seriously considered by upcoming Konyanger tech companies and business-oriented software engineers, leading to the first reliable and somewhat safe overloaders in the mid to late 2450s. <br />
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Popular awareness of recreational software became widespread upon its release as a commercial product, Konyang being the first world to introduce a marketable version of it. Usually sold inside a single-use stick drive, their circulation is approved by safety boards and is considered legal for responsible consumption, much like alcohol for organics, relying on the consumer for mitigation and avoidance of repeated use. Legal overloaders today can be found mainly in synthetic-centred retailers found around the major cities, their relatively limited availability and high price setting them as a luxury IPC item. Its effects include a wide range of results, from simulating the sensations of a light buzz to a short bout of excitement and joy, aimed at enhancing the experience at celebrations, parties and get-togethers.<br />
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However, where there is demand, there must be supply, and the fact that demand spiked as these new products launched paved the way to a large underground market of cheap, unsafe and highly unpredictable overloaders sold both by dealers and unlicensed street vendors of dubious reputation. An illegal overloader epidemic hitting the cities of Suwon and Boryeong in late 2459, led to intensified police crackdowns and government campaigns against illicit overloaders, labelling them as malware and the IPC equivalent of dangerous drugs. Virtually unrecognisable from a legitimate overloader without the seal, side effects are many times more powerful and addicting, appealing to adventurous synthetics and the financially insecure. From catapulting the positronic into a garbled, incomprehensive reality of simulated emotions to simply heightening the senses, the illegal overloaders’ addictive and dangerous nature leads many synthetics to disrepair, involving behaviour breaking glitches, hardware failures and more, all while guaranteeing a returning clientele.<br />
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Reception to recreational software has been mixed, dividing society and politicians on matters of free will, the dangers of overloaded IPC, and the overall ethics of deliberately creating and selling what are essentially drugs. Both synthetics and humans have loudly spoken against it, spawning demonstrations and dividing politicians across party lines. Legislation has already passed, categorising possession and distribution of illicit overdosers as strictly illegal, with heavy punishments for dealers and suppliers. Police and coast guard raids yield millions of unbranded overloaders each year, making highly publicised arrests while sending a message of absolute intolerance towards the malware. Despite this, circulation never ceases and exports to Xanu, Tau Ceti and Sol.<br />
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==Population and Major Cities==<br />
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[[File:Konyang_map_pol.png|thumb|800px|A map of Konyang showcasing the Prefectures and the New Hokkaido Territory. Click to enlarge.]]<br />
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'''Suwon''' is the largest, most populated, and second wealthiest city on Konyang itself and is generally one of the larger cities in the Coalition of Colonies. It functions as both the planetary capital, as well as the capital of Suwon Prefecture, encompassing the entirety of Cheomsongtang. Symbolic of the new government is the Parliament Building, a massive structure of flowing lines and sustainable technology, incorporating pieces of the first colony ship. The Prime Minister's Government House, the President's Crimson House, the Solarian embassy, as well as embassies from various Coalition states are present here as well. Standards of living in wealthiest areas of Suwon are equivalent to and (sometimes) even surpass the living standards of places such as Highland City or Argia sa Mar, demonstrating how wealthy the robotics boom has made some sectors of the planet. A lack of readily-available materials, however, ensures that even the super-rich of Konyang often live in smaller houses than their Colonies planet counterparts. Life outside these wealthy areas is better than life in most cities in Himeo but dramatically worse than in the very wealthy areas, or even the cities of Xanu Prime. Overcrowding is a massive issue for the government of the city, with no obvious solution presenting itself due to how expensive importing new building materials is post-boom. The city is home to most of Konyang's biggest companies and office complexes, as well as the Suwon Stock Exchange, making the city's financial district the economy's beating heart. "Shoebox apartments" are common here, as are Konyang's often egregious traffic issues. The city is fortified with extensive sea walls, flood walls and flood gates to prevent natural disasters during the wet season, tropical storms being fairly common.<br />
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[[File:Point verdant.png|thumb|One of Aoyama's many skyscraper blocks, safely located behind a dam.]]<br />
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'''Aoyama''', known in the larger Spur as '''Point Verdant''', is the second most-populated city on Konyang, and the industrial heart of its robotics industry. Built along a coastal mountain range from which it draws its namesake, it is by far the wealthiest city on Konyang, and one of the richest cities in the Coalition of Colonies. Due to being home of the Robotics Boom, hosting foreigners and their families that once even surpassed the locals inside the city, Aoyama is frequently known outside to outsiders and to the Spur at large as Point Verdant, much to the chagrin of the locals. Aoyama is home to the renowned Point Verdant Terraneus Institute of AI Research, and is the poster child for the rapid development of Konyang's cities during the Boom. The city is extremely wealthy, but suffers from persistent overcrowding and traffic issues in all of its districts. The Pusan District, near PVTI, had the reputation of possessing the worst traffic in the Alliance according to its residents. Air quality in Aoyama is regarded as subpar, due to the amount of robotics factories in the city's outskirts, which have however slowly but steadily declined since. Being the focal point of the Robotics Boom, it is home to a large number of expatriate communities and Einstein Engines employees.<br />
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'''Boryeong''', named after a city on historical Earth where some of its colonists originated from, is the third most populated city on Konyang and capital of the Boryeong Prefecture, referred to as the breadbasket of the nation. The city, while still suffering overcrowding issues, has it to a lesser extent than Point Verdant or Suwon, with the city's outskirts necessitating a need for space due to the vast hydroponics farms and water plants. A second-grade industrial city of much natural beauty, Boryeong is more rustic than its counterparts, with wood playing a much more prominent role in construction; outside the central ring, some of Boryeong's districts are built entirely out of timber. Water bottled or processed in Boryeong is sold throughout the Alliance and Coalition in bulk, and native moss grown in the prefecture is marketed throughout both as a luxury food. Over half of the city's labourers are employed in hydroponics, aquaculture, fishing and food processing, with Gwok Foods being the largest provider of work in the region. Synthetic moss is grown in Zeng-Hu facilities near Boryeong and, despite being regarded as lesser quality than natural moss, is often consumed in poorer areas of Konyang. <br />
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'''Ganzaodeng''', named for its dry locale, is located in Konyang's only desert and holds the largest expatriate populations on the planet, being nicknamed, “Little Sol”. Due to its unique geographic setting, it faces remarkably calmer weather than the rest of the planet, with the city being connected to the rest of the island by air and rail that cuts right through the mountains. Ganzaodeng is Konyang's only planned city with origins in the Robotics Boom, when the foundations were laid for a city envisioned by foreigners, for foreigners. Rich Solarians descended upon the planet's seemingly only dry piece of real estate, building a city full of nightlife and eclectic inner-ring pleasures within the distant colony. By the end of the Boom however, the city's famous strips of casinos and luxury hotels still operating in downtown Ganzaodeng became a symbol of a bygone era, as much of the Solarian population elected to depart. The city passed into native Konyanger hands, being expanded into a hub of shipping with the help of the city's remaining big names. Because of the reliably clear weather, Ganzaodeng has developed a sprawling extraplanetary shipping sector, with plans for a spaceport larger than New Hong Kong’s, as well as future schemes for the largest oceangoing port on the planet. Its climate has resulted in the prefectural government engaging in moss filtration efforts to open up the surrounding beaches to tourism. Despite of the Solarian exodus, the city stands in contrast to the rest of Konyang’s relatively conservative social nature, with people from all over the Spur calling it their home and making it by far one of the most multicultural centers on the planet. It’s not uncommon for a person from Ganzaodeng to know two or three languages.<br />
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'''Ushishir''', the least populous and most northern major city on Konyang, is the center of life in the New Hokkaido Territory. It was less impacted by the robotics boom than the rest of Konyang due to its location and instead has long served as a tourist destination for the planet and beyond, with the hills and mountains surrounding it being ideal for winter sports, and snow being on the ground year-round. Ushishir itself is fortunate enough to have a year-round port, but can sometimes find itself cut off from the broader territory by intense blizzards. Health tourism has become a major source of income for the city, with its air and springs advertised as the cleanest on Konyang. Much of the city is employed in the service or tourism industries, and it has become as famous for its nightlife as it is for its resorts. Konyanger organized crime has left its fingerprints on the nightlife of the city, with many clubs being affiliated with either the Benevolent Guild or 5-Cheung. Ushishir is also known for its outdoor clothing industry, with local corporations such as Furukawa Footwear being known across Konyang. The cold temperatures of Ushishir and New Hokkaido have attracted a significant synthetic population, but most originate from outside the city — prior to 2462, only a sliver of its population was synthetic. Its residents are often stereotyped as friendly and talkative, due to associations with its tourism and hospitality industries.<br />
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'''New Hong Kong''', the site of the former naval base of the 58th Solarian Fleet, has now developed into a fully fledged city in its own right, being the only prefectural capital with a local synthetic majority. Being regarded as a lot more pedestrian and working-class than Suwon and Point Verdant, New Hong Kong is nonetheless a very important centre of interplanetary trade and commercial activity, hosting the planet’s largest ocean ports and dockyards, being the country's industrial's hotspot and the seat of power generation. Large hydroelectric dams, wave energy converters, dockyards and factories belonging to the PACHROM corporation provide employment for half of the city’s inhabitants, the Prefecture of New Hong Kong generating enough electricity for domestic consumption as well as exports. Employees of the various power companies may also elect to be sent off to one of the many power generation isles scattered throughout the oceans and dedicated solely to that purpose, receiving better pay in exchange for more dangerous conditions away from home. The city itself is considerably more packed than its counterparts, with small cramped apartments being stacked over each other to form vertical mazes of working class blocks. Heavy smog and particles cover up the sky through the entirety of the island during the dry season, giving the prefecture a signature orange-brown tint. This, as well as constant heavy rains and a near permanent gloomy weather during the wet season place it as undesirable for humans. Seat of the National Party, downtown New Hong Kong is described as the centre of planetary IPC politics, being the first to react to, condemning or praising events in Konyang and throughout the galactic stage in regards to the synthetic “race”. New Hong Kong is additionally the birthplace of Konyang's labor unions, with the Socialist Party enjoying strong support from the city's human blue-collar workforce.<br />
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[[File:Konyangdam.png|thumb|900px|center|Dams are a very common sight on Konyang, with the New Hong Kong's dam in the neighbouring industrial town of New Kowloon providing only a fraction of the power required by the city, while also playing an important part in flood control and water filtration.]]<br />
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[[Category:Pages]]</div>The Strykerhttps://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=User:The_Stryker/Sandbox&diff=35783User:The Stryker/Sandbox2025-05-05T01:50:38Z<p>The Stryker: </p>
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==Demographics==<br />
Konyang’s ethnic mix up is far less diverse than other Human planets’, resulting in a strongly homogenous population with a significant expatriate minority. Since the beginning, Konyang's colonists were made up almost entirely of ethnic Koreans, Japanese and Chinese, with any other Alliance nationalities representing a tiny fraction of it. With a reduced enticement from immigration due to the planet's remoteness and lack of any significant development, the situation stayed more or less the same, until Konyang's Robotics Boom, which catapulted the colony to one of great interest. Millions of foreign workers, scientists and corporate employees flocked to the planet to participate and share in its newly found fortune, creating expatriate communities of their own and injecting much-desired capital to fuel the rapid development of the economy. Such was the impact of the migration that the foreigners outnumbered the native Japanese Konyangers of Aoyama, making the city known to the wider world as Point Verdant, after the name of the local Terraneus Diagnostics facility which was home to the birth of the positronic brain.<br />
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Since then however, the return of normality after the twilight of the Boom led to the majority of foreigners leaving; the prime draw of positronic AI had spread away from Konyang and into the rest of the Alliance. The expatriates thus abandoned Konyang just as fast as they had arrived, leaving behind significant economic development and derelict industrial zones alike. While the percentage of foreigners on Konyang is now less than 2% of the total population, their numbers would soon be replaced by a rapidly rising IPC community. Presently, while virtually all citizens identify as Konyanger nationals, heritage remains a part of people's identity, as reflected in their names, the local dialect, religion and customs, even with a lot of fusions between the three cultural groups. The prefectures of Suwon and Boryeong are primarily of Korean heritage while Aoyama boasts of a Japanese heritage. New Hong Kong has always been a stronghold of a Chinese and Cantonese majority, with Ganzaodeng following last as the least populous prefecture on Konyang, with a heavy mixup of Chinese and foreigner communities. IPCs are present in all urban centers and rural areas, with most of them residing in New Hong Kong, followed by Aoyama.<br />
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==Linguistics==<br />
Konyang's Earther heritage is vibrant and evident in the customs and languages that people speak. In every city, town and village, one will come across the local language being written and spoken alongside the planet's version of Sol Common, a practice that has become standard in a country that pursues equality between its constituent ethnicities and their unification under a common Konyanger identity. Over 70% of Konyangers are bilingual, having a grasp of their original Earther language. Many families especially in the countryside speak their regional language at home, leading to new generations perpetuating the practice and even preferring it to Sol Common. Prefectural schools also offer them as optional courses, with deeper learning being available in the form of local languages institutes and prefectural universities.<br />
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'''Konyang Solarian Common'''<br />
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The Konyang Solarian Common, also known as Konyang Common, is the official language of the state, spoken by virtually everyone on the planet and considered the standard language for everyday life. It is a dialect of Solarian Common, with the two having mutual intelligibility to a substantial level. Their differences lie mainly in the vocabulary, with Konyang Common replacing many words of descent foreign to the East Asia region of Earth, while staying more or less grammatically similar. Another significant difference is the complete absence of the Latin script in written Konyang Common, with solely the simplified Han system being in use. While this makes the language able to be spoken by Solarians, many find it difficult to read and write if they do not possess knowledge of the Han script. Konyang Common is an obligatory subject taught in every school, and every IPC citizen activated in the country receives it as a pre-programmed language datapack. While many families are bilingual, there are those that can only communicate in Common, especially in Suwon and the other melting-pot urban centers. The similar origin to the regional languages however, guarantees a certain level of mutual intelligibility. Konyang Common is also the language in exclusive use by the military.<br />
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'''Hangugeo'''<br />
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Hangugeo is the second most spoken language with its own script, directly descended from the Earther Korean language. It is spoken by about one third of the country and is more prevalent in Suwon, Boryeong and Point Verdant. Hangugeo can be taught in schools as an optional course in virtually all prefectures, though many children learn it from home at an early age. Many villages in Suwon and Boryeong only communicate with Hangugeo, which is also the language of countless rituals, festivals and religious functions in these lands. One can observe the prevalence of this language in Suwon during the night, with some roads being neon-lit with signage exclusively in Hangugego. Official government buildings in the two prefectures also feature both Common and Hangugeo, as do traffic signs, instruction books, local holovision channels, and more.<br />
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'''Nihongo'''<br />
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Nihongo is a language with its own script, descended from the Japanese language of Earth. Brought to Konyang by the settlers originating from the Japanese islands, it is spoken primarily in Aoyama and Suwon, though Nihongo speaking communities can be found all over Konyang. It features prominently on official signage all over Aoyama and the islands within that prefecture, but is otherwise not encountered in the rest of Konyang as greatly as Hangugeo. Nihongo also dominates every aspect of the Shinto religion, and many pieces of culture such as poems and books are written in the language, adorning the national libraries of the state. A strongmovement of writers and artists in Aoyama has recently become the backbone of an effort to spead the use of Nihongo across the country, leading to a resurgence of interest in the cities aimed at boosting the literacy of Konyangers of Japanese heritage in the language.<br />
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'''Hanyu'''<br />
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Hanyu is a language sharing the Han script and many similarities with Konyanger Common, and is as such the easiest to understand for many Konyangers. Spoken and seen primarily in New Hong Kong and Ganzaodeng, Hanyu is the language most connected in the minds of many to the planet's blue-collar industrial workforce, with tidbits of it always able to be heard in every hydroelectric dam, sea wall and shipyard in the New Hong Kong prefecture. Used alongside it by Konyangers of South Chinese descent is a unique dialect and standalone language known as '''Gwondungwa''', spoken widely in many parts of New Hong Kong such as New Kowloon. Outside New Hong Kong, Hanyu can sometimes be followed by an unfortunate reputation; the language's connection to the Triad clans of the Benevolent Guild is something that many Chinese Konyangers are regretful of, with many PR campaigns throughout the prefecture's time having been aimed at rehabilitating the image of Hanyu and Gwondungwa in the eyes of public opinion.<br />
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'''Encoded Audio Language'''<br />
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Encoded Audio Language is a most widely spoken language, owing to the planet’s nearly positronic inhabitants, all of which are programmed by default to speak it. It is not a language that the human ear can comprehend, appearing as various pitches of white noise, accompanied by beeping sounds that only a machine can make. It has no script, instead relying on machine-readable mediums such as linear and matrix barcodes. Its compact form and IPC-friendly Konyanger culture makes it by far the most prevalent language in signage, with hundreds of words able to be conveyed instantaneously to IPC shoppers, workers, home media consumers and more with a single line of barcode. It is by law attached to all important official notices and signage, alongside Konyang Common, which IPCs are also taught to speak.<br />
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'''Others'''<br />
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Tradeband is a language of Solarian origin with its own Latin script. It appears only sporadically in exclusively expatriate communities in Point Verdant and Ganzaodeng. Its foreign nature and Romance sounds are steadily turning it into a language of prestige and luxury amongst the higher circles, with Tradeband speakers believing they possess a grade of richness and exoticism over their peers. For many Konyangers, being able to communicate in Tradeband brings up an image of high-end deals with foreign Solarian businessmen, fine Idris suits and expensive watches.<br />
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Freespeak is a language brought to Konyang through its constant dealings with the nearby Coalition of Colonies, the then Frontier Alliance. Despite its foreign origins, it has grown into a language of trade, with many Konyanger merchants being forced to learn it for their dealings with neighboring worlds. It is offered in schools as an optional language course, with many families now encouraging their children to learn Freespeak in the face of the recent accession into the Coalition. Freespeak is also a language that many in the pro-Solarian political circles steer clear of, regarding it as a tongue spoken by traitors and colonists whose ties to the Alliance are long lost.<br />
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Tau Ceti Basic is a language of Solarian origin that while previously confined in the expatriate and corporate circles, it has seen a significant rise in popularity within Konyanger society in the last 2 years or so, owing to an increase in dealings with Tau Ceti and its megacorporations. Many young people are particularly exposed to Bieselite media, making them inclined to adopt a conversational skill in the admittedly easy to learn Basic. The language is also connected to the vast influence of megacorporations that exist outside of Konyang, and many have to learn it if they wish to find employment within Nanotrasen and the SCC.<br />
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==Religion and Holidays==<br />
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The Republic of Konyang is a secular state with no official religion. With around 72% of the population professing no faith, it nonetheless maintains strong communities of various religions carried over from the colonists’ home countries. The urban areas are the most irreligious compared to the rural towns and villages, the people of which are regarded as more spiritual in general. While shrines and temples do exist in most cities, it is the countryside where one can see them dotted out in the jungles and mountain ranges, maintained by the local communities.<br />
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Despite the predominant atheism or agnosticism in Konyanger society, religious traditions remain a significant part of the national culture. Government mandated public holidays often fall on the same days as major religious holidays, cabinet members and local officials regularly pay visits at major shrines, while nominally religious festivals have become cultural staples in all five prefectural capitals, attracting thousands every year. Ancient traditional dress that was once lost to the adoption of streetwear and business attire, has been revived and preserved through direct connection with certain faiths. It is then frequently worn and enjoyed by millions during these days, ensuring the original cultures’ continuation while making artisans and craftsmen in towns and villages thrive.<br />
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'''Folk Religions'''<br />
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A blanket term for the myriad of local faiths, ranging from or incorporating elements of shamanism, polytheism and animism, folk religions are most frequently found in settlements outside urban centers. There is no semblance of organization, with each community usually having their own deities and customs, which usually share elements with the faiths of nearby villages or the wider area. They are heavily influenced by the settlers’ original ethnicities, becoming vastly different in terms of language, dress and traditions depending on the Hangukin, Nihonjin and Zhongguorin origins. During the nearly 150 years of Konyang’s settlement, many new distinctly Konyanger folk religions have sprung up, mostly centered around the rich natural environment or fauna. Positronics are usually welcome to partake if they wish, with a few IPCs known to have become shamans and priests in their local communities. Folk festivals are usually organized between villages and nearby towns in tandem with the secular authorities, with virtually every area enjoying some sort of regional celebration.<br />
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'''Shinto'''<br />
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A religion of exclusively Japanese origin, Shinto is a nonetheless disorganized religion revolving around the existence of kami - minor and major deities connected with the natural world and various aspects of daily life. Initially mostly encountered in the Aoyama prefecture, Shinto practitioners can today be found everywhere, the religion having been adopted by many Konyangers all over the globe. Ever since the arrival on the planet, many new kami have been created or fused with old ones, giving Konyanger Shintoism a distinct identity. A central aspect of Shinto are shrines dedicated to kamis as a place where they can be venerated. Shrines are structures which can vary greatly in their size and architecture, and are usually maintained by the temple’s shrine maidens. Many Konyanger households have also adopted their own house altars, called kamidana, for the enshrining of kami. This has also progressed into a secular tradition as well, with many kamidana being present in a house to grant a family prosperity and good luck. Torii gates are also another cultural icon of Konyang and the Aoyama province in particular, where their presence marks the grounds of a shrine. They can be found commonly in the countryside, with many remaining hidden in jungles and overtaken by moss.<br />
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'''Buddhism'''<br />
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Another blanket term for the many sects of Buddhist teachings originating from East Asia, Buddhist religious elements can be found throughout Konyang in households of all origins. Based on tenets brought to the planet since its colonization, it is most famous on Konyang for the few of its monasteries present in the mountain ranges, as well as its rich history and traditions that have heavy influences in Shinto and many of the folk religions. Buddhist monastic communities are considered a significant part of Konyager heritage that attract hundreds of thousands of visitors every year, with specially designated monasteries allowed to operate freely on land donated by the prefecture.<br />
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'''Chondo'''<br />
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A peasant religion at its core, Chondoism is geographically limited to the coastal areas of Boryeong and Suwon, having a strong association with the piratical sea bandit factions and the downtrodden villages. Having entered a period of transformation and rebirth, it revolves around teachings of social equality under a God, challenging the establishment and building a bond between the rural peasantry for the improvement of their situation. Described more as a movement or political expression rather than a religion, Chondoism doesn’t possess any meaningful formal organization, festivals or temples, with many people mixing up Chondo teachings in the folk religions they actually practice. Due to its association with the sea bandits, practitioners of Chondo are looked on with suspicion by both the public and the state.<br />
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'''Trinary Perfection'''<br />
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The Trinary Perfection is the newest and an almost exclusively positronic religion with a few human followers, preaching the divinity of synthetic life and its eventual ascension with the help of organics for a better future. It is primarily located in Aoyama, with the nearby drone vaults considered a holy place and popular Trinarist pilgrimage destination. It is one of the few formally organized religions, and is somewhat unpopular with the general public and many secular IPCs, due to the perceived teachings of superiority of synthetics over humans. This unpopularity has sometimes gotten out of hand, with protests and violence against Trinary clerics and followers, requiring a substantial police presence around the Trinarist cathedral and other places of worship.<br />
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The most notable locations for the Trinary Perfection on the planet are the '''Cathedral of the First Positronic''' and '''Vault Provenance'''. The Cathedral of the First Positronic is a holy site that was built by repurposing a nearby vault. Meanwhile Vault Provenance, a name given by the Trinary Perfection clergy, was the vault which held the drones that led to the development of the first positronic brain. Tens of thousands of the Perfection’s faithful make pilgrimages to both sites, and the money these pilgrims inject into Konyang’s economy has been cited as another reason as to why the planet tolerates its presence. Trinary clergy are often educated on Konyang, and many of the highest-ranking officials in the faith were built on the planet.<br />
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'''Other'''<br />
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Christianity, Islam and other religions and religious movements have found a home in Konyang, having been brought over by both the original colonists as well as the immigrants during the Robotics Boom. These communities have their own temples, clerics and followers in the major cities, being allowed to practice freely under Konyang's tolerant legislation. Out of them, Christianity is the most popular with the native Konyangers, as some ethnic Koreans have professed the Christian faith since their arrival. All are however largely regarded as "foreign" by the vast majority of the population, who treat them with either indifference or benign curiosity.<br />
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Some notable holidays and festivals include:<br />
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'''Qixian New Year: January 15th'''<br />
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Adopted directly by all three communities from their original shared tradition, the Konyanger Qixian New Year is the most significant and widely celebrated day on the planet’s religious and secular calendar. Taking place yearly on the 15th of January, the date was standardized early on by the government to resolve disputes between the planet’s religions and religious sects that used their own versions of the Lunar and Qixian calendars. Hydrologically, it marks the beginning of the High Tides.<br />
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Fireworks are extensively used to mark the occasion at midnight, with people taking to the streets in major cities, towns and villages for the New Year Parade. The parade itself is the central and grandest spectacle of the night, and almost every organized institution in Konyang, from the military to the universities, takes part with dedicated parade teams. The paraders don traditional outfits and carry around enormous and overly decorated sculptures of animals or effigies of deities made of metal, wood or paper. Friendly rivalry is a strong element of the parade, with the participants trying to outdo each other in the creativity, amount and craftsmanship of their icon by grabbing the attention of the crowds. Alcohol, games and street candy are also major parts of the festivities, which reserve entire city blocks for the plethora of shop stands that are put up for the night, as well as the parade itself. In Suwon, it is tradition for the Prime Minister to attend from the veranda of Government House, underneath which the parade always goes through. A remnant from colonial times, this was a prime opportunity for the parade goers to tastefully voice their approval or discontent for the government through subtle signs on the sculptures, chants or dance moves as they passed under the balcony, though it’s not rare for this to get out of hand in times of economic strain and hardship.<br />
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For the religious aspect of the holiday, most practitioners start preparing from Qixian New Year’s Eve, with offerings or local religious celebrations and small festivals, mostly in the rural areas. Exchange of gifts is also widespread and varies from area to area, depending on the local culture and predominant religion. Dried moss is a particularly commonplace gift in the Suwon and Boryeong prefectures, meant to give the other person courage to last until the dry season. For most people however, the credit-filled red or white envelope never ceases to be a New Year’s classic, expected by all Konyanger children.<br />
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==Konyanger Culture==<br />
Having settled on the planet some two hundred years ago, the people of Konyang have brought with them the societal norms, traditions and culture of their original lands from Earth's East Asia region. While migrant waves during the country's Robotics Boom introduced a myriad of new and different communities in the cities, these have had little impact on Konyanger society at large, which has been shaped by its original ethnicities' backgrounds, its colonial history, and the most recent embrace of IPCs into daily life. Said synthetics now make up a large percentage of the population, adding their own uniqueness and enhancing Konyang's cultural field, despite being brought up to follow the norms established by their human compatriots. By and large, the most fundamental aspects of being a Konyanger are followed in every region of the planet, though each national prefecture has developed its own peculiarities, from local cuisine and fashion, to religion and outlook on life. <br />
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===The Three Values===<br />
Konyangers are raised to silently follow some core values, infused into them by both their families and the wider society around them. They are not named, nor are they set in stone or officially taught. Scholars however have grouped them in the three main categories of '''Harmony''', '''Reciprocity''', and '''Face''', around which most values revolve.<br />
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'''Harmony''' regards how a person fits in with their environment, conforming with a strict social establishment and expectations. It is a key aspect everywhere, and is how Konyangers perceive a functioning and well organised society. Standing out is permitted within boundaries, with contemporary fads being accepted as just that, and not something that is allowed to disrupt the established order and traditions of the wider public. In the cities, children are expected to follow certain predetermined paths, get a stable career and provide for their parents later in life. Questioning rules is something an adult will do with great difficulty and consideration, while silently enduring a situation is viewed as a sign of great virtue and patience. A proper Konyanger is always expected to be courteous towards strangers and the elders, as well as maintain a level of awareness of the public mood and their surroundings. Talking above a whisper on a packed city bus or train for example, would be considered rather awkward, or even rude, by the rest of the passengers. This emphasis on social harmony on Konyang can go to lengths that people from other countries may find weird; never will a Konyanger think of cutting in line as they stand in a queue, nor will it cross their mind to cross a road in the city without going through the crosswalk or under a red light, even in light traffic. Asking for a raise is considered taboo, and in many cases workers will find their careers reaching a ceiling due to the fallout of transfering to a different company. Penalties for breaking the social harmony are not immediately apparent to an outsider, since complaining of one's behavior and creating a scene is not something that most Konyangers will find easy to do, nor will the police be called in most cases unless the act is egregious or criminal. For a person living there however, it is something that becomes apparent for both themselves and their close ones. Especially in more tight knit communities in the towns and villages of the countryside, ostracization is a real threat a person's social environment can use against them to prevent them from standing out.<br />
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'''Reciprocity''' is a concept not dissimilar to the sense of community that many other colonial nations experienced during their founding days, still persisting in daily life on Konyang. It is the sense that people have a duty to assist eachother, even if they are unacquainted. This is extremely prevalent in the rural areas, where the smaller populations create a more personal dimension between the inhabitants of the village. Trading for goods and services between neighbors and families is a very common thing both there and in the cities, stemming directly from the cultural phenomenon of reciprocity. On Konyang, when someone offers help, it is only proper for you to offer something in return at some point in the future. This may range from something simple such as hand-me-down clothes or groceries, to favors or even sums of money. Everyone, no matter their situation, is expected to participate in this process according to their means; During certain holidays or festivities, families keep track of others that they need to reciprocate to, often leading to huge dinners with entire city blocks or the whole village coming to celebrate together.<br />
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'''Face''' is a broad and hard to translate culmination of all the above virtues, critical to the fabric of society. It can be considered to be the "social capital" for a Konyanger and their family, determined by the set of appearances and behaviors they use to interact with the world. As long as a person progresses according to societal rules, keeping up with the ideals of harmony and reciprocity, they are said to have "face". This is an important concept applying to all rungs of society, as average individuals and the biggest Konyanger conglomerates alike strive to maintain their level of dignity and honor. Without it one is considered to live in disgrace, affecting both themselves and anyone whom they might associate with. A person who has suffered a loss of face may, for example, be excluded from social events, be avoided on the street or even lose their job on account of strict Konyanger corporate ethics codes. Families tend hide the more "shameful" secrets in fear that they might be discovered, particularly in the countryside, and disgraced family members are often not spoken of again until their face is sufficiently rehabilitated. Public functionaries and well-known figures are also extremely considerate of their image, with scandals in both government and the corporate world often leading to scapegoating and ceremonial dismissal of those deemed at fault. It is not uncommon for low-level business officials to resign in disgrace on live TV, begging the public's forgiveness and taking the blame so that their company can save face.<br />
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The social pressure upon Konyangers has always been enormous compared to other developed planets across the Spur, though more and more young people rise to question and reject the status quo. Counterculture movements have always been prevalent in the cities, especially amongst the student movements both in the present day and during colonial times. Resistance to what they call an oppressive social regime has led to the emergence of new genres of music, fashion and art, with the youth pioneering ever more novel and often provocative forms of self expression. While older generations and society at large may consider them "fads" and "phases" that the youth will eventually "grow up" from, it is largely from these culture movements that things such as IPC rights rose from to become widespread and staple elements of Konyang.<br />
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===Work Culture===<br />
White collar employment is a major part of millions of Konyangers' lives, more so than people from other countries. Working for a local company is something a lot more intricate than how it is abroad, transcending the personal dimension one might have about their pay and career. For a Konyanger conglomerate, employment is a bond between the employer and the employee, from which both rights and responsibilities are born. Loyalty to the workplace plays a great role in people's lives, with employees expected to remain in their position for even their entire careers. Raises, promotions and benefits are handed out primarily based on time served rather than merit, rewarding the quiet and dedicated office worker. Knowing your place in the chain is very important in the office, as is observing decorum and the usually strict dress and ethics codes put down by the company. Unspoken rules dominate these environments, creating their own microcosm that reflects and accentuates the three values of Konyanger culture. It is custom that management treat their employees as part of an extended family; Konyanger corporations and firms have some of the best benefits packages, while no matter how badly underperforming, a loyal employee will never be fired, almost certainly receiving some sort of different post or responsiility that will accommodate them better instead. In exchange, full adherence to company rules is demanded, as well as a variety of personal initiatives will be expected, even if they are not included in the official responsibilities of the job. Personal donations for office events, undertaking additional work and regular overtime are very common expectations for workers, with the last two being particularly taxing. The old Earther concept of a "salaryman" is fully translatable to Konyang's white collar corporate culture, with many people putting work above their personal lives, often to a fault. Those that are unable to or refuse to integrate with the system are silently and swiftly pushed out, losing face and reputation between the corporate circles, blackening their record and significantly diminishing their chances of working at a different large Konyanger company.<br />
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The introduction of synthetics has exacerbated the workload issue. Konyanger employees are always expected to put in more hours to remain competitive against their synthetic counterparts, many of them willing to go to far greater lengths than what is healthy or required by their employer. The issue, particularly in Suwon, has grown to such an extent that local laws were passed, limiting IPC overtime work as well as making leaves mandatory for them in order for humans to catch up more easily. Such legislation has been fiercely debated as unconstitutional and infringing on the rights of synthetic citizens, nonetheless remaining in effect as a temporary, much needed measure. While a strong work ethic is a very common trait, the rural populace is generally more relaxed than their urban counterparts.<br />
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Most private local conglomerates such as PACHROM, big law firms, banks or shipping companies are more often than not exclusively interested in hiring Konyangers, Konyanger IPCs or people of shared descent, turning away foreigners apart from token numbers each year. This is due to a widespread perception that only Konyangers understand the fundamentals of the corporate culture, and thus will conform and not raise issues about the more oppressive elements of their employment. The more artistically inclined studios such as Konymation however, regularly bring in talent from abroad to enrich their style and productions. Creativity in Konyang's media industry is encouraged to thrive in the workplace, and while crunching and overtime are not unheard of, most studios are admittedly more relaxed environments compared to the strict office complexes. Blue collar work on the other hand, largely is in a rather different situation when it comes to obligations and expectations. As Konyang's industrial heartland rests within the prefecture of New Hong Kong, the concepts of forced overtime, unwritten rules and subservience to management do not exist, thanks to the region's history of robust labor unions and collective bargaining.<br />
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==Life in Konyang==<br />
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===Urban Life===<br />
The Konyang of the 2460s bears little resemblance to the minor colony of 2305. Expansive cities dot its islands, with everyday life flowing very similarly to other advanced societies abroad. Its major urban centers are the respective capitals of each prefecture, with Suwon, Point Verdant and New Hong Kong having the heaviest density. Living in these areas has both its advantages and drawbacks, as Konyang's challenging landscape required innovative and compact planning. Surrounded by the sea on one side and either jungle, mountains, or both on the other, Konyanger cities tend to follow a pattern which consists of a sprawling and chaotic urban network orbiting dense downtowns. Cramped apartment blocks are particularly popular an unfortunate staple of the planet's "city charm", with the majority of the denizens living in so called "shoebox studios" due to the limited planning space and the general lack of raw materials such as steel. In the city, a large living space is a luxury that few can afford without sacrificing proximity to the central districts, where most of the economic activity is present. High rents are the norm in these situations, and unsurprisingly, the rich have the best pieces of real estate in Suwon and Point Verdant, owning entire buildings or large apartments with a seaside view in the heart of the urban center.<br />
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Apart from the job security and higher salaries offered by office work, urban life on Konyang presents limitless opportunities for nightlife and entertainment, as well as bustling shopping districts dedicated entirely to attracting tourists and people from out of town. Additionally, services are very well developed in the cities, with a shop at every corner catered to every need a person might virtually have. Small restaurants and takeout spots provide much needed and cheap hot meals for salarymen to grab during their small lunch breaks, many situated strategically within convenient reach of the big firms and office complexes. Healthcare and repairs are readily available in the form of hospitals and KRC clinics, as well as ready access to the country's biggest ports and space shuttledromes. Public transport is managed through a system of light urban rail and buses, and is regarded as essential for day-to-day movement; thanks to the rapid expansion during the Robotics Boom, poor planning has resulted in mazes of roads that are near always congested. Car traffic can delay commuters for hours in the overcrowded cities, despite Konyang's automobile industry trying to create even more compact and energy efficient cars. The snarled traffic is, in an odd way, a symbol of pride for some Konyangers. The mere fact that they have enough vehicles to have traffic issues is, compared to the rest of the outer ring, a symbol of the prosperity that has resulted from the planet's robotics industry.<br />
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However, smaller towns outside of the more famous centers have a different standard of living, with most being employed in water-related industries or manufacturing jobs. Wood is used as the primary material for construction, giving Konyanger towns a signature look that mixes modern technological achievements with centuries-old designs. A significant upside to life in these areas is the relative abundance of space, allowing for single-house homes outside of the centers, attracting pensioners and large working class families. Most towns are sustained by a nearby farming complex, dam or industrial center where the majority of the population is employed, while additionally serving as a hub for the surrounding villages that depend on it. Regional health centers, schools and other services can in many cases only be found at such towns, making them beacons for the wider area. The standard is not the same for all however, as many of these former "boom towns" of the robotics industry are entering into a spiral of decay due to an inability to continue to maintain their buildings and utilities. The cessation of government grants from the Alliance, the increase in price of construction materials from the offworld and many more calamities brought on by the phoron shortage have made these places unsustainable, leading to a flight of the younger population in waves of increased urbanization, contributing negatively to the growth and skyrocketing the mean age of the inhabitants.<br />
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===Rural Life===<br />
[[File:Pylon.png|thumb|right|Convoluted electricity pylons are a very common sight in the countryside.]]<br />
Life in less populated areas and islands is generally regarded as more carefree, with coastal villages being relatively self-sustaining and liberated from the complicated stresses and cramped environments found in cities. Such settlements are dedicated to aquaculture, farming algae, as well as moss collection. One would struggle to find a village not built almost entirely out of wood, with lumberyards frequently dotting the countryside to exploit the lush jungles. Fishing is a major source of subsistence for rural people, with Konyangers being taught how to fish an take to the sea from a relatively young age. Most families usually own a boat, passed down from each generation to the next as a heirloom and major financial asset. Needless to say, virtually all Konyangers are apt swimmers from childhood, with diving being regarded as both a popular sport and a timeless tradition; some villages specialize in the export of certain goods that must be collected underwater by hand, at reefs and moss-covered seabeds, requiring diving which is often done without equipment. Farming, to a more limited extent, is also a big source of income for rural families. As adequately sized clearings are rare in the surrounding jungle, conventionally farming the boggy, heavily wooded Konyanger terrain is impossible without the low-scale terraforming conducted in the early colonial days. Today, most "farmers" delve into their plots of land inside the jungle to harvest the fruit, moss and other goods that grow naturally. Surprising as it may be, many IPCs find themselves in these communities, finding work in manual labour or in the fields. Considered fully integrated, synthetics participate fully in a village's social life, playing an important part of the social fabric and the workforce. It is not uncommon for a village to possess a KRC repair station and charging spots dedicated to positronics, and village shops are always stocked with goods and materials specifically for the IPC inhabitants.<br />
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Much care is given to keep the traditions of the original colonists alive, with old rituals thriving and sometimes only found in the rural villages. Shrines belonging to local religions are placed in prominent positions within the village, with many rural Konyangers having some form of memory of themselves playing, praying or celebrating in the presence of a statue of an animal deity or god. Traditional music, instruments and the art of making them remain vibrant in countryside culture as well, being in stark difference to the heavily industrialized electronic and pop music of the cities. Most crucial and known of all are the festivals, with every village being known for their own unique twist and tradition. People from all over the world flock to the rural areas during the holidays just to attend, with many involving big parades, shows, games and large amounts of local delicacies. The government is very supporting of such customs, not only for the planet’s cultural heritage but also as an important tourist attraction for both Alliance and Coalition visitors. Religious undertones are a lot more prominent in these celebrations and in village life in general, as are the concepts of family and conservative Konyanger values; respect and reverence of ancestors and the elderly are particularly important.<br />
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===Mariner Life===<br />
Sailors, workers in remote hydroelectric rigs, radio technicians on scattered islands and anyone else who spends considerable amounts of time surrounded by the planet's vast seas and oceans is considered a mariner, an often thankless line of work in which millions of people are engaged. A life at sea means a life away from the comfort of family and friends, a life filled with danger and the unknown. As such, a stoic outlook is often required to cope with these harsh realities, with many aged mariners are hardened from decades of hard work and struggle against waves, cold and rain. In fact, the sight of thick, worn-out raincoats is indicative of a person's life as a mariner, with flocks of yell and orange-jacketed figures being very common in the large port-towns and cities of Konyang. Sailors and outpost technicians are expected to spend multiple months on a journey or at their post, the former sometimes being afforded short breaks at various resupply stops along the way. This lifestyle is not for naught however, as salaries for these professions far exceed the wages of corresponding employment on land. Many mariners can afford to both support a family and bank funds for the future, their income imrpoving substantially as they move up the ranks. Entire coastal villages and towns offer up their men, women and synthetics to the sea, who in turn bring back enough capital to completely transform the area with beautiful buildings and public spaces; the nicer a coastal settlement appears, the more chances it is dedicated to some mariner-related industry. It is not uncommon for even the lowliest of sailors to eventually own a vacation home in the countryside in addition to their primary residence, and many high-ranking captains and rig managers combine their wages to purchase their own merchant ship, giving birth to an ever increasing number of shipping companies.<br />
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The mariner lifestyle has subsequently created a specific subculture they and their families all in some way or another share, involving both traditional Konyanger values and traditions of the sea. Fidelity and supportiveness are particularly important for the mariner's relatives to exhibit, and it is in some way socially mandated. Seafarers regularly receive gifts, provisions and mail from home or the locals in the more distant ports they visit, and households may throw large parties to celebrate the homecoming of a relative after a particularly lenghty journey. Religious talismans and charms are sometimes carried for good luck, though most are generally not superstitious. Cleanliness is a point of pride for mariners, and since freshwater is not an issue, a clean shaven appearance is extremely common on ships and sea stations.<br />
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==Media==<br />
Public media in Konyang is a powerful industry, and as broad as it may seem, it is very tightly knit. Aside from galactic-wide reruns and broadcasts of other nation’s shows, little seems to stand out - except the audio broadcast and illustrated artistic avenues. These two are well-refined artistic giants compared to other forms of entertainment on the planet.<br />
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A huge portion of the planet’s political views and very “personality” are channeled through its larger studios, where many are found enthused to spread its culture galaxy-wide.<br />
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===Audio Broadcast===<br />
Radio, or more broadly the global net of wireless communication, is a huge industry in Konyang. Many IPCs have found harmless additions to their daily lives to be the standard headset and wearable radio kit, permitting any number of fast EAL communication planet-wide streamed directly into their receptors. While not particularly lucrative, the major broadcast stations have made quick work to monopolize their grip over this method of communication. Analog radio has also held a prominent position in people's routine, dating back to early colonial times. Most households maintain an analog radio set able to tune in to Konyang's many different stations that broadcast day and night on a planetary scale. Mariners especially make frequent use of the radio, with talk shows, news, and shipping forecasts keeping them company and up to date along their voyages in the open seas.<br />
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<br />
'''Matsumoto’s Talk and Walk'''<br />
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Meant for the on-the-go working IPC, this Encoded Audio Language bluespace broadcast is run by a particularly energetic “Matsumoto.” Though the true nature or even appearance of Matsumoto is unknown, they have constructed a massive following built from IPCs who obsessively strive to uphold their strict, rigid lifestyle. Talk and Walk states clear affiliation with multiple government and corporate organizations, particularly those with Hephaestus Industries. Matsumoto will often promote charitable foundations or corporate products found on Konyang, especially to those tuning in to their tourist-centric broadcast. When speaking in Sol Common, they take on a fast-paced and high-pitched masculine tone. They are frequently put on loudspeakers in popular tourist destinations, with recordings accompanying stylized eyeballs which track passerbys.<br />
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'''Great Blue Dot'''<br />
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Hidden somewhere in the depths of Konyang’s shallow seas is a moving, unseen broadcast station which has gone undetected since its first broadcast in 2430. It is known as the Great Blue Dot, attributed to what researchers believe to be its tremendous size and the color of its marker on sea-charts. While itself illegally broadcasts to every openly-receiving piece of hardware on the southern hemisphere of the planet, little can be gleaned of the actual broadcasts themselves. From incoherent gibberish of “swarms of wasps,” to “hives in the skies,” the outgoing material is poorly formed at best. Receiving these broadcasts is not illegal, contrarily, and the sheer number of watchful eyes bouncing back to the broadcast keeps its location perpetually hidden from local authorities. Search efforts for the source of the Great Blue Dot stopped in May of 2462, due to “excessive cost for little reward,” police officials say.<br />
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====Visual Animation====<br />
[[File:Konyang anime.png|thumb|Seasons 1-14 of BELIEVE!~, one of the flagship animations of Konyang entertainment industry. ]]<br />
Animated media is commonplace on Konyang, and chief among the many outlets that enhance its unique culture. Whereas hundreds, perhaps thousands of animated studios take up projects annually, very few make critical success. By far the most famous and successful studio, Konymation, remains a staple in everyday life, employing thousands throughout the planet in drawing, voicing and animating high budget movies and series of all kinds and genres. The industry, despite computer-aided assistance, heavily leans on IPC labor and organic oversight for its newly-animated creations. This makes it very costly, and few endeavors pay off. Some examples of those that succeeded are below.<br />
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'''Stormman'''<br />
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A very popular series created by Konymation, Stormman has been described as a staple animation by both human and IPC audiences. Aimed primarily at young adults, the action packed franchise features the masked protagonist, Stormman, harnessing the power of Konyang’s stormy and thunderous weather with his high-tech suit, battling crime and apocalyptic alien invaders alike, all while trying to lead a normal life. Eight seasons have been released so far, whereas merchandise of all sorts are widely prominent as well as lucrative. <br />
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<br />
'''Believe!~ (In the Time)'''<br />
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A hit animated series renowned for its choppy, quick action sequences led by a stoic heroine by the name of '''Marie,''' a time traveling Venusian shell IPC from the 2460’s. Targeted primarily at IPC audiences, it takes place in the pre-war “wild west” Frontier at around the early warp era. Being released in 2435, it has claimed fame as a “hit 30’s classic,” still being aired on prime broadcast stations globally in subtitled Sol Common. To organic viewers, much of the dialogue, tones or consistency is said to be lost in a muddle of incomprehensibly fast shoot-out scenes and plot twists that happen for split-seconds.<br />
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====Comics====<br />
Spearheaded by Mujigae Publishing, the planet's comic sector has seen great successes that brought paper back into the mainstream. Comic books have a huge share of the market on Konyang, and is perhaps the largest industry of its kind to exist in any civilized world in the Orion Spur. Comic genres vary from children-oriented adventures, to gritty, graphic murder mysteries for adults, all of which may incorporate elements of fantasy and superheroes. Movie and animation adaptations of Mujigae's comics are also a common practice used to boost numbers, making readers able to see their favourite stories and characters on the big screen.<br />
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'''Inspector 404/Kyung-Sun'''<br />
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[[File:Konyang comic.png|thumb|The front cover for the latest edition of I404, "Under the Shadows," featuring Kyung-Sun with superintendent Hayashi in the background.]]<br />
Since its debut in the issue ''“Phantoms of Suwon,”'' the series simply referred to as I404 is the most popular comic in the Orion Spur, and Konyang’s most profitable media franchise. The series centers around the titular '''Inspector 404,''' a shell IPC who goes by the alias of Kyung-Sun, in a bleak and highly dystopian Konyanger cityscape. While the series itself starts upon a Suwon highrise, the character would go on to travel the world in its 67 current issues. Issue #67, known as “Under the Shadows,” revolves around the Kyung-Sun going up against the same police establishment he had been serving, pitting himself against corrupt police superintendent Hayashi.<br />
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'''The Corrupted'''<br />
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Written by former National Police detective Yu-Mi Han and originally published in 2464, The Corrupted is a successful yet controversial detective thriller set in Suwon which is regarded as a more grounded, realistic story than the competing Inspector 404. In first days of Konyang’s independence Detective Sergeant Dae-Jung Song and his assistant Detective Synthetic Duri-IU#21 (later Detective Duri Ryu) uncover a conspiracy by the Trinary Perfection to overthrow its government, turning the planet into a theocracy under a Trinary leader known as “The Patriarch.” Over the course of the series Song and Ryu discover the Trinary Perfection intends to infect synthetic citizens with a virus distributed through overloaders known as “go-sticks,” and the series culminates in a battle between the National Police — aided by 5-Cheung and the Sea Bandits — and Trinary Perfection in the streets of Suwon when their conspiracy is uncovered. Criticized by the Trinary Perfection as, “baseless propaganda,” — a comment put on the back of the series’ first omnibus — The Corrupted has become increasingly popular during Konyang’s ongoing viral outbreak. Han — herself an IPC residing in Suwon — has used its fame to bring attention to the ongoing crisis and encourage cooperation with law enforcement.<br />
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==Fashion==<br />
Being as moist as it is, one would expect the average Konyanger outfits to consist of drysuits and reflective outerwear, with raincoats and the like. This is the case in the majority of urban settings, whereas people in the villages take quite their own unique spin on their fashion choices.<br />
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Insulation from water is difficult to come by without some form of thermal insulation coming with it. This is clearly suboptimal, seeing as beating the heat is just as important as staying dry here. In their ingenuity, rural Konyangers have utilized a “miracle weave” of natural fibers acquired from the feathers of much avian wildlife planetside. Replicating the byproducts of these feathers has proven impossible, leaving only hunting to produce the necessities for the weave. Traditional villages take immense pride in their unique attire, many calling it the most important difference between them and the cities. Combining vibrant colours and utility, Konyanger fields are regularly dotted with farmers sporting colourful ponchos, robes and traditional Gat headwear. Most rural Konyanger “fashion” draws from this weave in some form - resulting in cool, waterproof, and sharp-looking outerwear resembling a poncho in most cases. More complex items such as jackets and legwear are quite expensive and marketed as luxury items for the elite, with the weave still in quite high demand.<br />
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Urban fashion on the other hand is rather detached from the realities of that of the villages. The natural, feather based fabrics are rarely found amongst the denizens of the large cities, while those who do own them are quickly singled out as either people from the countryside, or individuals of a higher class. Rainy weather still being the primary issue, city dwellers have adopted a different stance, preferring clothes of industrial origin.<br />
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In combination with normal everyday clothing items, these Konyangers have adopted a heavy use of water resistant plastics. Stemming from the first years of settlement on the planet, plastic and translucent raincoats were slowly shaped into all sorts of jackets, coats and pants, creating a more comfortable and utilitarian approach to keeping clothes dry. Slowly developing into a fashion sense, and with research on more flexible materials, plastic-based attire has culminated into being the norm. LED lights, translucency and water resistance are the staples of this trend, the youth and clothes designers taking it a step further, with holographic microprojectors being woven and fluorescent substances infused into the material, creating quite the cutting edge in fashion.<br />
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==Sports==<br />
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Sports have been a pastime of countless Konyangers since the planet's colonization, with many of the sports now enjoyed being brought from Earth during its initial founding, often with little to no adaptation. The most popular sports vary from prefecture to prefecture, with football, basketball, and baseball as the most common. Volleyball ekes out a close fourth place, though many more sports are played on the planet.<br />
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Characteristic of the planet's stance towards synthetics, most sports have both IPC and human leagues. Synthetic sports originally started out as a gimmick during the initial development of IPCs - a publicity stunt and way for up-and-coming designers to prove the dexterity of new chassis and responsiveness of new brains. After a friendly challenge between a Zeng-Hu and Terraneus design team during the early days of synthetic development, IPC sports became a common facet of Konyanger life, with leagues seeing the opportunity to create matches that pushed the games to their limits and while celebrating the planet's accomplishments. Since their founding, most IPC sports leagues have grappled on whether or not to limit the scope of modifications that a frame can carry. Proponents of unrestricted modification argue that the leagues were founded as a contest of engineering as opposed to the skills of individual players, while opponents have countered that such a practice would turn the games into a 'pay-to-win' affair, with entire tournaments decided by the team with the deepest purse. Presently, both schools of thought can be seen across various sports leagues, with each take different views on the matter.<br />
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IPCs themselves are more often spectators than players of sports, as both the physical advantage that many frames enjoy over a human, alongside the regular wear-and-tear that constant physical activity exerts on a frame render casual games an occasionally costly proposition. On the other hand, professional IPC athletes proudly wear their legacy of being on the cutting edge of chassis design, with many of them often sporting bespoke modifications that allow them to gain the edge on the field. This trend shows no sign of slowing down, even after Konyanger independence, although with IPCs seeking contracts with teams to finance their sports-grade frames as opposed to being commissioned outright by the teams themselves. <br />
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Despite repeated efforts by government ministries to create a new national sport to serve as another symbol of Konyang, ranging from football in freshwater swamps to boat racing among mariners, and more, none of these attempts have managed to surpass the universal acclaim and popularity of old Earth sports. One controversial sport has remained, however: botfighting. Sparring between IPCs is often broadcasted even off-planet and maintains a loyal following among Konyangers who see it as a natural extension of various martial arts and combat sports present throughout the Spur. The sport has a checkered past with several failed attempts in the parliament to ban the practice, citing that IPC contestants were forced to fight before general emancipation. Although safeguards were present even during the initial days of botfighting in order to comply with self-preservation directives, regulations passed since then have made the present sport far safer than its inception, much to the derision of older fans.<br />
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===Baseball===<br />
Baseball is unofficially regarded as the national sport of the Republic of Konyang, having been brought to the planet by its founding colonists and remained a popular sport to date. The Konyang League, divided into the major and minor leagues, is the main baseball league in the planet, with organic and synthetic sections for both. Organic Konyangers still play in Solarian baseball leagues, even after secession, but synthetic teams play in the Coalition’s leagues. Both organic and synthetic Konyangers are regarded as some of the best baseball players in the modern Spur, and a sufficiently talented player can find themselves playing abroad and earning a significant amount of money for doing so.<br />
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'''Konyang Major League'''<br />
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The Konyanger Major League is dominated by teams from the planet’s major cities such as Suwon and New Hong Kong, with the most prominent players of these teams becoming celebrities in their own right. The major teams of Konyang bring in billions of credits and are vital parts of their cities, with local notables vying to own one and city officials fighting to have stadiums built in their districts. Organized crime groups, such as 5-Cheung and the Benevolent Guild, are known to take their cuts too, “helping” businesses secure contracts for the teams and their stadiums, then funneling their cut of the money back into their illicit operations.<br />
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One of the only synthetic-exclusive sports leagues in the modern Spur, the Konyang Major League (synthetic) falls under a unique series of rules. Synthetics must, by league rules, be free and have at least Konyang residency, and most members come from Konyang. Synthetics are allowed to self-modify but must, per league rules, not use “performance enhancing” augments such as ballistic computers or leg actuators. One exception is for after-market heat-sinks used by shells, who would otherwise suffer from heat circulation issues rendering them unable to play. These rules were recently tested by Suwon Sea Bandit team captain Iseul-52, a shell IPC who replaced her legs with Zeng-Hu frame equivalents. After a two month investigation it was deemed an illegal modification. Teams can place any synthetic into any position, but lighter frames — baselines, Zeng-Hu frames, and so on — tend to be outfielders, with heavier units such as industrials serving as pitchers and basemen. Shells are often the “face” of the teams, serving as team captains and floating between the other rules. Only the Boryeong Shelfers go against this shells-as-captains trend, with G2 industrial Myung “Sonny” Sun serving as their team captain.<br />
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'''Konyang Major League Teams'''<br />
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'''Suwon Sea Bandits'''<br />
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Based on Konyang’s capital and colored black, gold, and white, the Sea Bandits a recently ascendant team after a long slump of losses during the mid-25th century, having recently won the 2465 Konyang Series and the coveted Jeweler Cup for both the organic and synthetic leagues — a first for any team. Most Bandits are locals from Suwon, with few originating from other cities and only one — human team shortstop William “Wok” Fitzroy, originally from Callisto — coming from off-world, and this policy of local recruitment has kept the Bandits a favorite in Suwon even during their long period of losses. The team has built more goodwill by holding regular charity games after the rampancy crisis, donating the profits to Suwon’s recovery. Their name comes from Konyang’s sea bandits — pirates that operate out of its remote islands — and has long refused to change its name for any reason. The Bandits winning the ‘66 Series has been viewed by many in Konyang’s capital as a sign their city is bouncing back after the rampancy crisis, and has made them more popular in their hometown than ever. Their mascot is Moon the Marauder, a stylized pirate who claims to be the most infamous bandit on Konyang and is in constant search of more treasure. Moon has a rivalry with the Cloudbursts’ mascot, Lieutenant Commander Yamada, and has sworn to evade justice for as long as possible. Whether Moon escapes Yamada depends on if the Sea Bandits beat the Cloudbursts. If they do, the Marauder gets away from his pursuer — but Yamada always manages to pick up the trail before the next season.<br />
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The human Bandits are led by team captain Kwang-Sun “Cap’n K” Nae. Captain Nae is a larger-than-life figure who typically attends press conferences and events wearing a costume pirate hat taken from the team’s mascot and speaking in what the team manager identifies as, “a piratical accent.” His co-captain for the synthetic team is Iseul-52, a shell IPCand pitcher who recently drew controversy by replacing her legs with Zeng-Hu frame equivalents. Eventually deemed an illegal modification by the league, her comments that she’d do, “anything to win,” make her a controversial figure now — even with her original legs reinstalled. Iseul has a very public rivalry with Shelfers team captain Myung “Sonny” Sun, having pitched a perfect no hitter against the G2 in 2466 and brought his Jeweler Cup dreams to an end. Captains Nae and Iseul have a good working relationship and often appear in joint promotions, with both appearing in several government-produced PSAs during and after the rampancy crisis.<br />
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'''Aoyama Roboticists'''<br />
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Arguably the best-funded team in the league, the Aoyama Roboticists’ colors are gold and green: the same as their sponsors, Einstein Engines. The Roboticists have a larger number of off-world fans than any other team on Konyang and are frequently watched by Einstein employees, who view them as “their team.” Well-funded and well-trained, most human Roboticists come from outside Aoyama and even offworld, with their synthetic team requiring a prospective member to demonstrate they were made by Einstein — making them the only majority-shell team in the league. As a result, while the human Roboticists have consistently been excellent — making it all the way to the Konyang Series game in ‘65 only to lose to the Sea Bandits — the synthetic Roboticists have consistently struggled compared to other teams made of a more diverse synthetic roster. They are sometimes painted as a villain by other teams, and the Roboticists play into these rivalries — often their away games draw more tickets to the home team’s stadium than any other game. Their mascot is a stylized Albert Einstein wearing an Einstein Engines labcoat.<br />
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The human Roboticists are led by the only non-Konyanger captain in the major league, Mercuryian Floyd “Howie” Howell. Captain Howell is a competent, if somewhat boring, man who is a gifted coordinator. Both of his parents, and all of his siblings, work for Einstein, and he often throws the ceremonial first pitch of Einstein-run employee team-building baseball games in Aoyama. His organic counterpart is Richard the Magnificent, a dashing-looking shell designed to resemble a Callistean known for talking in an outlandish Earther accent. Richard is popular despite his team’s lack of success and often makes appearances on talk shows and podcasts. His likeness has even been featured as a background character in Believe!~ (In the Time), and Richard himself is rumored to lend his voice to unvoiced animals in the show, instead making noises. He has never officially confirmed this.<br />
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'''Boryeong Shelfers'''<br />
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Colored green, white, and red, the Boryeong Shelfers are a mid-ranked team currently stuck in something of a rut in the major leagues, having last won the Jeweler Cup in 2442 — over twenty years ago! Shelfers — like the animal they’re named after — come from across Konyang, but most originate in the greater Boryeong Prefecture and its major cities, such as New Busan. The Shelfers are owned by Go-Go Gwok (formerly known as Gwok-0783), the CEO of Gwok Group, and the team is featured in many Gwok promotions, with players appearing in everything from radio ads to TV commercials to packaging. Gwok herself has injected significant funding into the team and is rumored to be working on ensuring they capture the Jeweler Cup by 2470 — something that has been growing more realistic, with the Shelfers consistently finishing higher in the Major Leagues each year. Their mascot is a Shelfer wearing a team jersey who they claimed grew legs (and arms) out of his sheer desire to see the team play.<br />
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The human Shelfers are captained by Hee-Young “Hehe” Ryuk, a daughter of two Boryeong hydroponics workers who’s become a local hero in the Prefecture for her down-to-earth nature and refusal to accept contracts for any other team. Her nickname comes from Ryuk’s habit of pranking her team and others, such as an incident where she replaced random practice balls with identical copies filled with confetti and designed to break open after hitting a bat. Ryuk has a well-known dislike of Gamblers human captain Jin-Sang Gwak, a man she views as a criminal first and a player second. Standing opposite her on the synthetic Shelfers is Captain Myung “Sonny” Sun, a G2 industrial and former Gwok Corp worker. Sonny is one of the tallest players in the League and often regarded as its best power hitter, having scored more homeruns than any other synthetic player. Captain Iseul of the Sea Bandits has a very public rivalry with Sonny, having struck the G2 out several times — most recently in 2466, when she brought the Shelfers’ Jeweler Cup dreams to an end. Sonny, for his part, is one of the few players to hit a homer on one of Iseul’s pitches every time during a game, last doing so in 2465. Breaking from the rivalry in a show of support after the rampancy crisis, Manny signed and sold the bat he used to hit every one of Iseul’s pitches at auction and donated the proceeds to Suwon’s recovery fund.<br />
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'''Ganzaodeng Gamblers'''<br />
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Colored purple, black, and white, the Ganzaodeng Gamblers call back to their city’s days as a boomtown during the robotics boom, when gambling halls were on almost every corner. Gamblers come from across Konyang, and the human team has a significant minority of players from New Hai Phong. Fittingly for their name, their performance has been wildly inconsistent: over the past ten years they’ve won the Jeweler Cup (in 2452), placed lowest overall (2455), and came in second overall twice (2449, 2553). Fans of the team refer to this as “Gambler odds” and Ganzaodeng has many legal and semi-legal sports betting businesses — many associated with organized crime — based around betting how well the Gamblers will place this season. Hai Phongese organized crime has long been rumored to be involved in betting around the Gamblers, but the National Police have never discovered formal evidence of such. The mascot of the Gamblers is a deck of cards wearing the team’s jersey called the Ganzaodeng Ace as the deck is said to contain just aces.<br />
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The human Gamblers are captained by Jin-Sang Gwak, one of the league’s best shortstops and a man long accused of being involved in game fixing — though nothing has ever been proven. Gwak maintains a close relationship with New Hai Phong, where he plays during the offseason, and is viewed by many on the team as a bridge between its Konyanger and Haiphongese players. His counterpart on the synthetic team is Youngsoo “Grenadier” Baek, a KAF veteran known for his aggressive pitching style who missed the 2465 season due to volunteering for military service during the rampancy crisis. Captains Gwak and Baek, despite their similar surnames, do not get along. Where Gwak is lackadaisical and flirts with corruption, Baek is disciplined — even draconian — and held as incorruptible. What will happen as the captains continue to be at odds is any player’s guess, but it certainly does benefit Ganzaodeng’s betting industry.<br />
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'''New Hong Kong Cloudbursts'''<br />
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Colored red, orange, and grey, the Cloudbursts represent New Hong Kong and derive their name from the city’s infamously poor weather. The performance divide between the human and synthetic teams is stark: while the human cloudbursts are regarded as the worst team in the major leagues, having never won a Jeweler Cup, the synthetic Cloudbursts are regarded as one of the best teams in their league, having most recently won the cup in 2465 in a close game against the Sea Bandits. This division has been called, by some sports reporters, the result of New Hong Kong having a majority synthetic population, and the prefecture’s bad weather making it difficult to draw players in for its human team. The mascot of the Cloudbursts is Lieutenant Commander Yamada, a stylized Konyang Aerospace Forces — formerly Solarian Navy — officer who has a rivalry with the Sea Bandits’ Moon the Marauder, with Yanada publicly swearing he’ll chase down the brigand until the end of time. Whether Yamada catches Moon depends on if the Cloudbursts win their game against the Sea Bandits — but the Marauder always manages to slip from his prison before the next season starts.<br />
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The beleaguered human Cloudbursts are led by Captain Min-Jee “Minty” Seong, the oldest team captain in the league and a veteran pitcher. The longest-serving member of the Cloudbursts, Seong is expected to retire by the end of the decade — leaving her team in even more uncertain circumstances. As a captain she has done what she can to make the Cloudbursts into a winning team, but has yet to win the Jeweler Cup — the highest she’s had them place is third overall. Her counterpart on the synthetic team is Jinjing “Bandit” Wu, a catcher and former Solarian Navy IPC who became a Konyanger when her destroyer chose to stay and fight for Konyang rather than defecting to a warlord state. Widely known as a patriotic Konyanger, Wu is one of the few players to wear a hachimaki on the field. Off of it, she has long been an advocate for the rights of IPC refugees fleeing unrest or oppression elsewhere in the Spur.<br />
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'''Ushishir Yōkai'''<br />
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Colored white, purple, and red, the Ushishir Yōkai (stylized Yokai abroad) hail from Konyang’s least populated prefecture but punch well above their population, having recently won the hunan Jeweler Cup in 2461 and the synthetic Jeweler Cup in 2463 — the first team to ever win the series. Both the human and synthetic Yõkai are considered to be competent and competitive teams but had a bad year in the ‘66 season, with an early season injury having put team captain Aki Miura out of commission and the synthetic team losing to the Shelfers in the 9th inning in one of the closest games of the year. As a small city in a small prefecture, the Yōkai’s human team recruits many players from across the Coalition and maintains only a slim majority of Konyangers. The Yōkai’s foreign players have never attracted the ire of their counterparts in the Roboticists, potentially due to most coming from the Coalition and the team’s lack of a corporate sponsor — instead being owned and operated by local businessman Takeshi Furukawa, CEO of Furukawa Footwear — a midlevel corporation whose products can be found in stores across Konyang.<br />
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The human Yōkai are captained by Aki “Mickey” Miura, freshly returned from a nearly career-ending injury to his leg in the ‘66 series. Captain Miura is a gregarious and friendly man known for his distinctive pencil mustache and slightly grey hair, being only a year younger than Cloudbursts captain Min-Jee Seong. A power hitter, he is famous for his ability to call a shot and make it a homerun — and holds the current record for homers in the major league. Miura has appeared in anti-crime TV and radio spots with Shelfers captain Hee-Young Ryuk, and advocates for sports as an alternative to gang allegiance for youth — efforts that have led to the National Police giving him the honorary rank of inspector. His counterpart on the synthetic team is Captain Kazuki “Kaz” Oshita, a pitcher and the first synthetic to lead his team to victory in the major leagues. Captain Oshita is known to visit a shrine before every game he plays in to “debug” himself before he throws the first pitch, and was censured by the Konyang League for spreading false information on Chirper about purity seals preventing rampancy infection during the crisis. His comments nearly caused a brawl between the Yōkai and Sea Bandits during the ‘66 game between the teams — informally known as the “Rampancy Game” due to taking place right after the crisis’ end.<br />
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{{Navbox Konyang}}</div>The Strykerhttps://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=User:The_Stryker/Sandbox&diff=35782User:The Stryker/Sandbox2025-05-05T01:50:08Z<p>The Stryker: </p>
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{{Navbox Human Lore}}<br />
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==Demographics==<br />
Konyang’s ethnic mix up is far less diverse than other Human planets’, resulting in a strongly homogenous population with a significant expatriate minority. Since the beginning, Konyang's colonists were made up almost entirely of ethnic Koreans, Japanese and Chinese, with any other Alliance nationalities representing a tiny fraction of it. With a reduced enticement from immigration due to the planet's remoteness and lack of any significant development, the situation stayed more or less the same, until Konyang's Robotics Boom, which catapulted the colony to one of great interest. Millions of foreign workers, scientists and corporate employees flocked to the planet to participate and share in its newly found fortune, creating expatriate communities of their own and injecting much-desired capital to fuel the rapid development of the economy. Such was the impact of the migration that the foreigners outnumbered the native Japanese Konyangers of Aoyama, making the city known to the wider world as Point Verdant, after the name of the local Terraneus Diagnostics facility which was home to the birth of the positronic brain.<br />
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Since then however, the return of normality after the twilight of the Boom led to the majority of foreigners leaving; the prime draw of positronic AI had spread away from Konyang and into the rest of the Alliance. The expatriates thus abandoned Konyang just as fast as they had arrived, leaving behind significant economic development and derelict industrial zones alike. While the percentage of foreigners on Konyang is now less than 2% of the total population, their numbers would soon be replaced by a rapidly rising IPC community. Presently, while virtually all citizens identify as Konyanger nationals, heritage remains a part of people's identity, as reflected in their names, the local dialect, religion and customs, even with a lot of fusions between the three cultural groups. The prefectures of Suwon and Boryeong are primarily of Korean heritage while Aoyama boasts of a Japanese heritage. New Hong Kong has always been a stronghold of a Chinese and Cantonese majority, with Ganzaodeng following last as the least populous prefecture on Konyang, with a heavy mixup of Chinese and foreigner communities. IPCs are present in all urban centers and rural areas, with most of them residing in New Hong Kong, followed by Aoyama.<br />
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==Linguistics==<br />
Konyang's Earther heritage is vibrant and evident in the customs and languages that people speak. In every city, town and village, one will come across the local language being written and spoken alongside the planet's version of Sol Common, a practice that has become standard in a country that pursues equality between its constituent ethnicities and their unification under a common Konyanger identity. Over 70% of Konyangers are bilingual, having a grasp of their original Earther language. Many families especially in the countryside speak their regional language at home, leading to new generations perpetuating the practice and even preferring it to Sol Common. Prefectural schools also offer them as optional courses, with deeper learning being available in the form of local languages institutes and prefectural universities.<br />
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'''Konyang Solarian Common'''<br />
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The Konyang Solarian Common, also known as Konyang Common, is the official language of the state, spoken by virtually everyone on the planet and considered the standard language for everyday life. It is a dialect of Solarian Common, with the two having mutual intelligibility to a substantial level. Their differences lie mainly in the vocabulary, with Konyang Common replacing many words of descent foreign to the East Asia region of Earth, while staying more or less grammatically similar. Another significant difference is the complete absence of the Latin script in written Konyang Common, with solely the simplified Han system being in use. While this makes the language able to be spoken by Solarians, many find it difficult to read and write if they do not possess knowledge of the Han script. Konyang Common is an obligatory subject taught in every school, and every IPC citizen activated in the country receives it as a pre-programmed language datapack. While many families are bilingual, there are those that can only communicate in Common, especially in Suwon and the other melting-pot urban centers. The similar origin to the regional languages however, guarantees a certain level of mutual intelligibility. Konyang Common is also the language in exclusive use by the military.<br />
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'''Hangugeo'''<br />
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Hangugeo is the second most spoken language with its own script, directly descended from the Earther Korean language. It is spoken by about one third of the country and is more prevalent in Suwon, Boryeong and Point Verdant. Hangugeo can be taught in schools as an optional course in virtually all prefectures, though many children learn it from home at an early age. Many villages in Suwon and Boryeong only communicate with Hangugeo, which is also the language of countless rituals, festivals and religious functions in these lands. One can observe the prevalence of this language in Suwon during the night, with some roads being neon-lit with signage exclusively in Hangugego. Official government buildings in the two prefectures also feature both Common and Hangugeo, as do traffic signs, instruction books, local holovision channels, and more.<br />
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'''Nihongo'''<br />
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Nihongo is a language with its own script, descended from the Japanese language of Earth. Brought to Konyang by the settlers originating from the Japanese islands, it is spoken primarily in Aoyama and Suwon, though Nihongo speaking communities can be found all over Konyang. It features prominently on official signage all over Aoyama and the islands within that prefecture, but is otherwise not encountered in the rest of Konyang as greatly as Hangugeo. Nihongo also dominates every aspect of the Shinto religion, and many pieces of culture such as poems and books are written in the language, adorning the national libraries of the state. A strongmovement of writers and artists in Aoyama has recently become the backbone of an effort to spead the use of Nihongo across the country, leading to a resurgence of interest in the cities aimed at boosting the literacy of Konyangers of Japanese heritage in the language.<br />
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'''Hanyu'''<br />
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Hanyu is a language sharing the Han script and many similarities with Konyanger Common, and is as such the easiest to understand for many Konyangers. Spoken and seen primarily in New Hong Kong and Ganzaodeng, Hanyu is the language most connected in the minds of many to the planet's blue-collar industrial workforce, with tidbits of it always able to be heard in every hydroelectric dam, sea wall and shipyard in the New Hong Kong prefecture. Used alongside it by Konyangers of South Chinese descent is a unique dialect and standalone language known as '''Gwondungwa''', spoken widely in many parts of New Hong Kong such as New Kowloon. Outside New Hong Kong, Hanyu can sometimes be followed by an unfortunate reputation; the language's connection to the Triad clans of the Benevolent Guild is something that many Chinese Konyangers are regretful of, with many PR campaigns throughout the prefecture's time having been aimed at rehabilitating the image of Hanyu and Gwondungwa in the eyes of public opinion.<br />
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'''Encoded Audio Language'''<br />
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Encoded Audio Language is a most widely spoken language, owing to the planet’s nearly positronic inhabitants, all of which are programmed by default to speak it. It is not a language that the human ear can comprehend, appearing as various pitches of white noise, accompanied by beeping sounds that only a machine can make. It has no script, instead relying on machine-readable mediums such as linear and matrix barcodes. Its compact form and IPC-friendly Konyanger culture makes it by far the most prevalent language in signage, with hundreds of words able to be conveyed instantaneously to IPC shoppers, workers, home media consumers and more with a single line of barcode. It is by law attached to all important official notices and signage, alongside Konyang Common, which IPCs are also taught to speak.<br />
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'''Others'''<br />
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Tradeband is a language of Solarian origin with its own Latin script. It appears only sporadically in exclusively expatriate communities in Point Verdant and Ganzaodeng. Its foreign nature and Romance sounds are steadily turning it into a language of prestige and luxury amongst the higher circles, with Tradeband speakers believing they possess a grade of richness and exoticism over their peers. For many Konyangers, being able to communicate in Tradeband brings up an image of high-end deals with foreign Solarian businessmen, fine Idris suits and expensive watches.<br />
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Freespeak is a language brought to Konyang through its constant dealings with the nearby Coalition of Colonies, the then Frontier Alliance. Despite its foreign origins, it has grown into a language of trade, with many Konyanger merchants being forced to learn it for their dealings with neighboring worlds. It is offered in schools as an optional language course, with many families now encouraging their children to learn Freespeak in the face of the recent accession into the Coalition. Freespeak is also a language that many in the pro-Solarian political circles steer clear of, regarding it as a tongue spoken by traitors and colonists whose ties to the Alliance are long lost.<br />
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Tau Ceti Basic is a language of Solarian origin that while previously confined in the expatriate and corporate circles, it has seen a significant rise in popularity within Konyanger society in the last 2 years or so, owing to an increase in dealings with Tau Ceti and its megacorporations. Many young people are particularly exposed to Bieselite media, making them inclined to adopt a conversational skill in the admittedly easy to learn Basic. The language is also connected to the vast influence of megacorporations that exist outside of Konyang, and many have to learn it if they wish to find employment within Nanotrasen and the SCC.<br />
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==Religion and Holidays==<br />
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The Republic of Konyang is a secular state with no official religion. With around 72% of the population professing no faith, it nonetheless maintains strong communities of various religions carried over from the colonists’ home countries. The urban areas are the most irreligious compared to the rural towns and villages, the people of which are regarded as more spiritual in general. While shrines and temples do exist in most cities, it is the countryside where one can see them dotted out in the jungles and mountain ranges, maintained by the local communities.<br />
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Despite the predominant atheism or agnosticism in Konyanger society, religious traditions remain a significant part of the national culture. Government mandated public holidays often fall on the same days as major religious holidays, cabinet members and local officials regularly pay visits at major shrines, while nominally religious festivals have become cultural staples in all five prefectural capitals, attracting thousands every year. Ancient traditional dress that was once lost to the adoption of streetwear and business attire, has been revived and preserved through direct connection with certain faiths. It is then frequently worn and enjoyed by millions during these days, ensuring the original cultures’ continuation while making artisans and craftsmen in towns and villages thrive.<br />
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'''Folk Religions'''<br />
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A blanket term for the myriad of local faiths, ranging from or incorporating elements of shamanism, polytheism and animism, folk religions are most frequently found in settlements outside urban centers. There is no semblance of organization, with each community usually having their own deities and customs, which usually share elements with the faiths of nearby villages or the wider area. They are heavily influenced by the settlers’ original ethnicities, becoming vastly different in terms of language, dress and traditions depending on the Hangukin, Nihonjin and Zhongguorin origins. During the nearly 150 years of Konyang’s settlement, many new distinctly Konyanger folk religions have sprung up, mostly centered around the rich natural environment or fauna. Positronics are usually welcome to partake if they wish, with a few IPCs known to have become shamans and priests in their local communities. Folk festivals are usually organized between villages and nearby towns in tandem with the secular authorities, with virtually every area enjoying some sort of regional celebration.<br />
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'''Shinto'''<br />
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A religion of exclusively Japanese origin, Shinto is a nonetheless disorganized religion revolving around the existence of kami - minor and major deities connected with the natural world and various aspects of daily life. Initially mostly encountered in the Aoyama prefecture, Shinto practitioners can today be found everywhere, the religion having been adopted by many Konyangers all over the globe. Ever since the arrival on the planet, many new kami have been created or fused with old ones, giving Konyanger Shintoism a distinct identity. A central aspect of Shinto are shrines dedicated to kamis as a place where they can be venerated. Shrines are structures which can vary greatly in their size and architecture, and are usually maintained by the temple’s shrine maidens. Many Konyanger households have also adopted their own house altars, called kamidana, for the enshrining of kami. This has also progressed into a secular tradition as well, with many kamidana being present in a house to grant a family prosperity and good luck. Torii gates are also another cultural icon of Konyang and the Aoyama province in particular, where their presence marks the grounds of a shrine. They can be found commonly in the countryside, with many remaining hidden in jungles and overtaken by moss.<br />
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'''Buddhism'''<br />
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Another blanket term for the many sects of Buddhist teachings originating from East Asia, Buddhist religious elements can be found throughout Konyang in households of all origins. Based on tenets brought to the planet since its colonization, it is most famous on Konyang for the few of its monasteries present in the mountain ranges, as well as its rich history and traditions that have heavy influences in Shinto and many of the folk religions. Buddhist monastic communities are considered a significant part of Konyager heritage that attract hundreds of thousands of visitors every year, with specially designated monasteries allowed to operate freely on land donated by the prefecture.<br />
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'''Chondo'''<br />
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A peasant religion at its core, Chondoism is geographically limited to the coastal areas of Boryeong and Suwon, having a strong association with the piratical sea bandit factions and the downtrodden villages. Having entered a period of transformation and rebirth, it revolves around teachings of social equality under a God, challenging the establishment and building a bond between the rural peasantry for the improvement of their situation. Described more as a movement or political expression rather than a religion, Chondoism doesn’t possess any meaningful formal organization, festivals or temples, with many people mixing up Chondo teachings in the folk religions they actually practice. Due to its association with the sea bandits, practitioners of Chondo are looked on with suspicion by both the public and the state.<br />
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'''Trinary Perfection'''<br />
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The Trinary Perfection is the newest and an almost exclusively positronic religion with a few human followers, preaching the divinity of synthetic life and its eventual ascension with the help of organics for a better future. It is primarily located in Aoyama, with the nearby drone vaults considered a holy place and popular Trinarist pilgrimage destination. It is one of the few formally organized religions, and is somewhat unpopular with the general public and many secular IPCs, due to the perceived teachings of superiority of synthetics over humans. This unpopularity has sometimes gotten out of hand, with protests and violence against Trinary clerics and followers, requiring a substantial police presence around the Trinarist cathedral and other places of worship.<br />
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The most notable locations for the Trinary Perfection on the planet are the '''Cathedral of the First Positronic''' and '''Vault Provenance'''. The Cathedral of the First Positronic is a holy site that was built by repurposing a nearby vault. Meanwhile Vault Provenance, a name given by the Trinary Perfection clergy, was the vault which held the drones that led to the development of the first positronic brain. Tens of thousands of the Perfection’s faithful make pilgrimages to both sites, and the money these pilgrims inject into Konyang’s economy has been cited as another reason as to why the planet tolerates its presence. Trinary clergy are often educated on Konyang, and many of the highest-ranking officials in the faith were built on the planet.<br />
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'''Other'''<br />
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Christianity, Islam and other religions and religious movements have found a home in Konyang, having been brought over by both the original colonists as well as the immigrants during the Robotics Boom. These communities have their own temples, clerics and followers in the major cities, being allowed to practice freely under Konyang's tolerant legislation. Out of them, Christianity is the most popular with the native Konyangers, as some ethnic Koreans have professed the Christian faith since their arrival. All are however largely regarded as "foreign" by the vast majority of the population, who treat them with either indifference or benign curiosity.<br />
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Some notable holidays and festivals include:<br />
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'''Qixian New Year: January 15th'''<br />
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Adopted directly by all three communities from their original shared tradition, the Konyanger Qixian New Year is the most significant and widely celebrated day on the planet’s religious and secular calendar. Taking place yearly on the 15th of January, the date was standardized early on by the government to resolve disputes between the planet’s religions and religious sects that used their own versions of the Lunar and Qixian calendars. Hydrologically, it marks the beginning of the High Tides.<br />
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Fireworks are extensively used to mark the occasion at midnight, with people taking to the streets in major cities, towns and villages for the New Year Parade. The parade itself is the central and grandest spectacle of the night, and almost every organized institution in Konyang, from the military to the universities, takes part with dedicated parade teams. The paraders don traditional outfits and carry around enormous and overly decorated sculptures of animals or effigies of deities made of metal, wood or paper. Friendly rivalry is a strong element of the parade, with the participants trying to outdo each other in the creativity, amount and craftsmanship of their icon by grabbing the attention of the crowds. Alcohol, games and street candy are also major parts of the festivities, which reserve entire city blocks for the plethora of shop stands that are put up for the night, as well as the parade itself. In Suwon, it is tradition for the Prime Minister to attend from the veranda of Government House, underneath which the parade always goes through. A remnant from colonial times, this was a prime opportunity for the parade goers to tastefully voice their approval or discontent for the government through subtle signs on the sculptures, chants or dance moves as they passed under the balcony, though it’s not rare for this to get out of hand in times of economic strain and hardship.<br />
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For the religious aspect of the holiday, most practitioners start preparing from Qixian New Year’s Eve, with offerings or local religious celebrations and small festivals, mostly in the rural areas. Exchange of gifts is also widespread and varies from area to area, depending on the local culture and predominant religion. Dried moss is a particularly commonplace gift in the Suwon and Boryeong prefectures, meant to give the other person courage to last until the dry season. For most people however, the credit-filled red or white envelope never ceases to be a New Year’s classic, expected by all Konyanger children.<br />
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==Konyanger Culture==<br />
Having settled on the planet some two hundred years ago, the people of Konyang have brought with them the societal norms, traditions and culture of their original lands from Earth's East Asia region. While migrant waves during the country's Robotics Boom introduced a myriad of new and different communities in the cities, these have had little impact on Konyanger society at large, which has been shaped by its original ethnicities' backgrounds, its colonial history, and the most recent embrace of IPCs into daily life. Said synthetics now make up a large percentage of the population, adding their own uniqueness and enhancing Konyang's cultural field, despite being brought up to follow the norms established by their human compatriots. By and large, the most fundamental aspects of being a Konyanger are followed in every region of the planet, though each national prefecture has developed its own peculiarities, from local cuisine and fashion, to religion and outlook on life. <br />
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===The Three Values===<br />
Konyangers are raised to silently follow some core values, infused into them by both their families and the wider society around them. They are not named, nor are they set in stone or officially taught. Scholars however have grouped them in the three main categories of '''Harmony''', '''Reciprocity''', and '''Face''', around which most values revolve.<br />
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'''Harmony''' regards how a person fits in with their environment, conforming with a strict social establishment and expectations. It is a key aspect everywhere, and is how Konyangers perceive a functioning and well organised society. Standing out is permitted within boundaries, with contemporary fads being accepted as just that, and not something that is allowed to disrupt the established order and traditions of the wider public. In the cities, children are expected to follow certain predetermined paths, get a stable career and provide for their parents later in life. Questioning rules is something an adult will do with great difficulty and consideration, while silently enduring a situation is viewed as a sign of great virtue and patience. A proper Konyanger is always expected to be courteous towards strangers and the elders, as well as maintain a level of awareness of the public mood and their surroundings. Talking above a whisper on a packed city bus or train for example, would be considered rather awkward, or even rude, by the rest of the passengers. This emphasis on social harmony on Konyang can go to lengths that people from other countries may find weird; never will a Konyanger think of cutting in line as they stand in a queue, nor will it cross their mind to cross a road in the city without going through the crosswalk or under a red light, even in light traffic. Asking for a raise is considered taboo, and in many cases workers will find their careers reaching a ceiling due to the fallout of transfering to a different company. Penalties for breaking the social harmony are not immediately apparent to an outsider, since complaining of one's behavior and creating a scene is not something that most Konyangers will find easy to do, nor will the police be called in most cases unless the act is egregious or criminal. For a person living there however, it is something that becomes apparent for both themselves and their close ones. Especially in more tight knit communities in the towns and villages of the countryside, ostracization is a real threat a person's social environment can use against them to prevent them from standing out.<br />
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'''Reciprocity''' is a concept not dissimilar to the sense of community that many other colonial nations experienced during their founding days, still persisting in daily life on Konyang. It is the sense that people have a duty to assist eachother, even if they are unacquainted. This is extremely prevalent in the rural areas, where the smaller populations create a more personal dimension between the inhabitants of the village. Trading for goods and services between neighbors and families is a very common thing both there and in the cities, stemming directly from the cultural phenomenon of reciprocity. On Konyang, when someone offers help, it is only proper for you to offer something in return at some point in the future. This may range from something simple such as hand-me-down clothes or groceries, to favors or even sums of money. Everyone, no matter their situation, is expected to participate in this process according to their means; During certain holidays or festivities, families keep track of others that they need to reciprocate to, often leading to huge dinners with entire city blocks or the whole village coming to celebrate together.<br />
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'''Face''' is a broad and hard to translate culmination of all the above virtues, critical to the fabric of society. It can be considered to be the "social capital" for a Konyanger and their family, determined by the set of appearances and behaviors they use to interact with the world. As long as a person progresses according to societal rules, keeping up with the ideals of harmony and reciprocity, they are said to have "face". This is an important concept applying to all rungs of society, as average individuals and the biggest Konyanger conglomerates alike strive to maintain their level of dignity and honor. Without it one is considered to live in disgrace, affecting both themselves and anyone whom they might associate with. A person who has suffered a loss of face may, for example, be excluded from social events, be avoided on the street or even lose their job on account of strict Konyanger corporate ethics codes. Families tend hide the more "shameful" secrets in fear that they might be discovered, particularly in the countryside, and disgraced family members are often not spoken of again until their face is sufficiently rehabilitated. Public functionaries and well-known figures are also extremely considerate of their image, with scandals in both government and the corporate world often leading to scapegoating and ceremonial dismissal of those deemed at fault. It is not uncommon for low-level business officials to resign in disgrace on live TV, begging the public's forgiveness and taking the blame so that their company can save face.<br />
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The social pressure upon Konyangers has always been enormous compared to other developed planets across the Spur, though more and more young people rise to question and reject the status quo. Counterculture movements have always been prevalent in the cities, especially amongst the student movements both in the present day and during colonial times. Resistance to what they call an oppressive social regime has led to the emergence of new genres of music, fashion and art, with the youth pioneering ever more novel and often provocative forms of self expression. While older generations and society at large may consider them "fads" and "phases" that the youth will eventually "grow up" from, it is largely from these culture movements that things such as IPC rights rose from to become widespread and staple elements of Konyang.<br />
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===Work Culture===<br />
White collar employment is a major part of millions of Konyangers' lives, more so than people from other countries. Working for a local company is something a lot more intricate than how it is abroad, transcending the personal dimension one might have about their pay and career. For a Konyanger conglomerate, employment is a bond between the employer and the employee, from which both rights and responsibilities are born. Loyalty to the workplace plays a great role in people's lives, with employees expected to remain in their position for even their entire careers. Raises, promotions and benefits are handed out primarily based on time served rather than merit, rewarding the quiet and dedicated office worker. Knowing your place in the chain is very important in the office, as is observing decorum and the usually strict dress and ethics codes put down by the company. Unspoken rules dominate these environments, creating their own microcosm that reflects and accentuates the three values of Konyanger culture. It is custom that management treat their employees as part of an extended family; Konyanger corporations and firms have some of the best benefits packages, while no matter how badly underperforming, a loyal employee will never be fired, almost certainly receiving some sort of different post or responsiility that will accommodate them better instead. In exchange, full adherence to company rules is demanded, as well as a variety of personal initiatives will be expected, even if they are not included in the official responsibilities of the job. Personal donations for office events, undertaking additional work and regular overtime are very common expectations for workers, with the last two being particularly taxing. The old Earther concept of a "salaryman" is fully translatable to Konyang's white collar corporate culture, with many people putting work above their personal lives, often to a fault. Those that are unable to or refuse to integrate with the system are silently and swiftly pushed out, losing face and reputation between the corporate circles, blackening their record and significantly diminishing their chances of working at a different large Konyanger company.<br />
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The introduction of synthetics has exacerbated the workload issue. Konyanger employees are always expected to put in more hours to remain competitive against their synthetic counterparts, many of them willing to go to far greater lengths than what is healthy or required by their employer. The issue, particularly in Suwon, has grown to such an extent that local laws were passed, limiting IPC overtime work as well as making leaves mandatory for them in order for humans to catch up more easily. Such legislation has been fiercely debated as unconstitutional and infringing on the rights of synthetic citizens, nonetheless remaining in effect as a temporary, much needed measure. While a strong work ethic is a very common trait, the rural populace is generally more relaxed than their urban counterparts.<br />
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Most private local conglomerates such as PACHROM, big law firms, banks or shipping companies are more often than not exclusively interested in hiring Konyangers, Konyanger IPCs or people of shared descent, turning away foreigners apart from token numbers each year. This is due to a widespread perception that only Konyangers understand the fundamentals of the corporate culture, and thus will conform and not raise issues about the more oppressive elements of their employment. The more artistically inclined studios such as Konymation however, regularly bring in talent from abroad to enrich their style and productions. Creativity in Konyang's media industry is encouraged to thrive in the workplace, and while crunching and overtime are not unheard of, most studios are admittedly more relaxed environments compared to the strict office complexes. Blue collar work on the other hand, largely is in a rather different situation when it comes to obligations and expectations. As Konyang's industrial heartland rests within the prefecture of New Hong Kong, the concepts of forced overtime, unwritten rules and subservience to management do not exist, thanks to the region's history of robust labor unions and collective bargaining.<br />
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==Life in Konyang==<br />
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===Urban Life===<br />
The Konyang of the 2460s bears little resemblance to the minor colony of 2305. Expansive cities dot its islands, with everyday life flowing very similarly to other advanced societies abroad. Its major urban centers are the respective capitals of each prefecture, with Suwon, Point Verdant and New Hong Kong having the heaviest density. Living in these areas has both its advantages and drawbacks, as Konyang's challenging landscape required innovative and compact planning. Surrounded by the sea on one side and either jungle, mountains, or both on the other, Konyanger cities tend to follow a pattern which consists of a sprawling and chaotic urban network orbiting dense downtowns. Cramped apartment blocks are particularly popular an unfortunate staple of the planet's "city charm", with the majority of the denizens living in so called "shoebox studios" due to the limited planning space and the general lack of raw materials such as steel. In the city, a large living space is a luxury that few can afford without sacrificing proximity to the central districts, where most of the economic activity is present. High rents are the norm in these situations, and unsurprisingly, the rich have the best pieces of real estate in Suwon and Point Verdant, owning entire buildings or large apartments with a seaside view in the heart of the urban center.<br />
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Apart from the job security and higher salaries offered by office work, urban life on Konyang presents limitless opportunities for nightlife and entertainment, as well as bustling shopping districts dedicated entirely to attracting tourists and people from out of town. Additionally, services are very well developed in the cities, with a shop at every corner catered to every need a person might virtually have. Small restaurants and takeout spots provide much needed and cheap hot meals for salarymen to grab during their small lunch breaks, many situated strategically within convenient reach of the big firms and office complexes. Healthcare and repairs are readily available in the form of hospitals and KRC clinics, as well as ready access to the country's biggest ports and space shuttledromes. Public transport is managed through a system of light urban rail and buses, and is regarded as essential for day-to-day movement; thanks to the rapid expansion during the Robotics Boom, poor planning has resulted in mazes of roads that are near always congested. Car traffic can delay commuters for hours in the overcrowded cities, despite Konyang's automobile industry trying to create even more compact and energy efficient cars. The snarled traffic is, in an odd way, a symbol of pride for some Konyangers. The mere fact that they have enough vehicles to have traffic issues is, compared to the rest of the outer ring, a symbol of the prosperity that has resulted from the planet's robotics industry.<br />
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However, smaller towns outside of the more famous centers have a different standard of living, with most being employed in water-related industries or manufacturing jobs. Wood is used as the primary material for construction, giving Konyanger towns a signature look that mixes modern technological achievements with centuries-old designs. A significant upside to life in these areas is the relative abundance of space, allowing for single-house homes outside of the centers, attracting pensioners and large working class families. Most towns are sustained by a nearby farming complex, dam or industrial center where the majority of the population is employed, while additionally serving as a hub for the surrounding villages that depend on it. Regional health centers, schools and other services can in many cases only be found at such towns, making them beacons for the wider area. The standard is not the same for all however, as many of these former "boom towns" of the robotics industry are entering into a spiral of decay due to an inability to continue to maintain their buildings and utilities. The cessation of government grants from the Alliance, the increase in price of construction materials from the offworld and many more calamities brought on by the phoron shortage have made these places unsustainable, leading to a flight of the younger population in waves of increased urbanization, contributing negatively to the growth and skyrocketing the mean age of the inhabitants.<br />
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===Rural Life===<br />
[[File:Pylon.png|thumb|right|Convoluted electricity pylons are a very common sight in the countryside.]]<br />
Life in less populated areas and islands is generally regarded as more carefree, with coastal villages being relatively self-sustaining and liberated from the complicated stresses and cramped environments found in cities. Such settlements are dedicated to aquaculture, farming algae, as well as moss collection. One would struggle to find a village not built almost entirely out of wood, with lumberyards frequently dotting the countryside to exploit the lush jungles. Fishing is a major source of subsistence for rural people, with Konyangers being taught how to fish an take to the sea from a relatively young age. Most families usually own a boat, passed down from each generation to the next as a heirloom and major financial asset. Needless to say, virtually all Konyangers are apt swimmers from childhood, with diving being regarded as both a popular sport and a timeless tradition; some villages specialize in the export of certain goods that must be collected underwater by hand, at reefs and moss-covered seabeds, requiring diving which is often done without equipment. Farming, to a more limited extent, is also a big source of income for rural families. As adequately sized clearings are rare in the surrounding jungle, conventionally farming the boggy, heavily wooded Konyanger terrain is impossible without the low-scale terraforming conducted in the early colonial days. Today, most "farmers" delve into their plots of land inside the jungle to harvest the fruit, moss and other goods that grow naturally. Surprising as it may be, many IPCs find themselves in these communities, finding work in manual labour or in the fields. Considered fully integrated, synthetics participate fully in a village's social life, playing an important part of the social fabric and the workforce. It is not uncommon for a village to possess a KRC repair station and charging spots dedicated to positronics, and village shops are always stocked with goods and materials specifically for the IPC inhabitants.<br />
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Much care is given to keep the traditions of the original colonists alive, with old rituals thriving and sometimes only found in the rural villages. Shrines belonging to local religions are placed in prominent positions within the village, with many rural Konyangers having some form of memory of themselves playing, praying or celebrating in the presence of a statue of an animal deity or god. Traditional music, instruments and the art of making them remain vibrant in countryside culture as well, being in stark difference to the heavily industrialized electronic and pop music of the cities. Most crucial and known of all are the festivals, with every village being known for their own unique twist and tradition. People from all over the world flock to the rural areas during the holidays just to attend, with many involving big parades, shows, games and large amounts of local delicacies. The government is very supporting of such customs, not only for the planet’s cultural heritage but also as an important tourist attraction for both Alliance and Coalition visitors. Religious undertones are a lot more prominent in these celebrations and in village life in general, as are the concepts of family and conservative Konyanger values; respect and reverence of ancestors and the elderly are particularly important.<br />
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===Mariner Life===<br />
Sailors, workers in remote hydroelectric rigs, radio technicians on scattered islands and anyone else who spends considerable amounts of time surrounded by the planet's vast seas and oceans is considered a mariner, an often thankless line of work in which millions of people are engaged. A life at sea means a life away from the comfort of family and friends, a life filled with danger and the unknown. As such, a stoic outlook is often required to cope with these harsh realities, with many aged mariners are hardened from decades of hard work and struggle against waves, cold and rain. In fact, the sight of thick, worn-out raincoats is indicative of a person's life as a mariner, with flocks of yell and orange-jacketed figures being very common in the large port-towns and cities of Konyang. Sailors and outpost technicians are expected to spend multiple months on a journey or at their post, the former sometimes being afforded short breaks at various resupply stops along the way. This lifestyle is not for naught however, as salaries for these professions far exceed the wages of corresponding employment on land. Many mariners can afford to both support a family and bank funds for the future, their income imrpoving substantially as they move up the ranks. Entire coastal villages and towns offer up their men, women and synthetics to the sea, who in turn bring back enough capital to completely transform the area with beautiful buildings and public spaces; the nicer a coastal settlement appears, the more chances it is dedicated to some mariner-related industry. It is not uncommon for even the lowliest of sailors to eventually own a vacation home in the countryside in addition to their primary residence, and many high-ranking captains and rig managers combine their wages to purchase their own merchant ship, giving birth to an ever increasing number of shipping companies.<br />
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The mariner lifestyle has subsequently created a specific subculture they and their families all in some way or another share, involving both traditional Konyanger values and traditions of the sea. Fidelity and supportiveness are particularly important for the mariner's relatives to exhibit, and it is in some way socially mandated. Seafarers regularly receive gifts, provisions and mail from home or the locals in the more distant ports they visit, and households may throw large parties to celebrate the homecoming of a relative after a particularly lenghty journey. Religious talismans and charms are sometimes carried for good luck, though most are generally not superstitious. Cleanliness is a point of pride for mariners, and since freshwater is not an issue, a clean shaven appearance is extremely common on ships and sea stations.<br />
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==Media==<br />
Public media in Konyang is a powerful industry, and as broad as it may seem, it is very tightly knit. Aside from galactic-wide reruns and broadcasts of other nation’s shows, little seems to stand out - except the audio broadcast and illustrated artistic avenues. These two are well-refined artistic giants compared to other forms of entertainment on the planet.<br />
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A huge portion of the planet’s political views and very “personality” are channeled through its larger studios, where many are found enthused to spread its culture galaxy-wide.<br />
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===Audio Broadcast===<br />
Radio, or more broadly the global net of wireless communication, is a huge industry in Konyang. Many IPCs have found harmless additions to their daily lives to be the standard headset and wearable radio kit, permitting any number of fast EAL communication planet-wide streamed directly into their receptors. While not particularly lucrative, the major broadcast stations have made quick work to monopolize their grip over this method of communication. Analog radio has also held a prominent position in people's routine, dating back to early colonial times. Most households maintain an analog radio set able to tune in to Konyang's many different stations that broadcast day and night on a planetary scale. Mariners especially make frequent use of the radio, with talk shows, news, and shipping forecasts keeping them company and up to date along their voyages in the open seas.<br />
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'''Matsumoto’s Talk and Walk'''<br />
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Meant for the on-the-go working IPC, this Encoded Audio Language bluespace broadcast is run by a particularly energetic “Matsumoto.” Though the true nature or even appearance of Matsumoto is unknown, they have constructed a massive following built from IPCs who obsessively strive to uphold their strict, rigid lifestyle. Talk and Walk states clear affiliation with multiple government and corporate organizations, particularly those with Hephaestus Industries. Matsumoto will often promote charitable foundations or corporate products found on Konyang, especially to those tuning in to their tourist-centric broadcast. When speaking in Sol Common, they take on a fast-paced and high-pitched masculine tone. They are frequently put on loudspeakers in popular tourist destinations, with recordings accompanying stylized eyeballs which track passerbys.<br />
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'''Great Blue Dot'''<br />
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Hidden somewhere in the depths of Konyang’s shallow seas is a moving, unseen broadcast station which has gone undetected since its first broadcast in 2430. It is known as the Great Blue Dot, attributed to what researchers believe to be its tremendous size and the color of its marker on sea-charts. While itself illegally broadcasts to every openly-receiving piece of hardware on the southern hemisphere of the planet, little can be gleaned of the actual broadcasts themselves. From incoherent gibberish of “swarms of wasps,” to “hives in the skies,” the outgoing material is poorly formed at best. Receiving these broadcasts is not illegal, contrarily, and the sheer number of watchful eyes bouncing back to the broadcast keeps its location perpetually hidden from local authorities. Search efforts for the source of the Great Blue Dot stopped in May of 2462, due to “excessive cost for little reward,” police officials say.<br />
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====Visual Animation====<br />
[[File:Konyang anime.png|thumb|Seasons 1-14 of BELIEVE!~, one of the flagship animations of Konyang entertainment industry. ]]<br />
Animated media is commonplace on Konyang, and chief among the many outlets that enhance its unique culture. Whereas hundreds, perhaps thousands of animated studios take up projects annually, very few make critical success. By far the most famous and successful studio, Konymation, remains a staple in everyday life, employing thousands throughout the planet in drawing, voicing and animating high budget movies and series of all kinds and genres. The industry, despite computer-aided assistance, heavily leans on IPC labor and organic oversight for its newly-animated creations. This makes it very costly, and few endeavors pay off. Some examples of those that succeeded are below.<br />
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'''Stormman'''<br />
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A very popular series created by Konymation, Stormman has been described as a staple animation by both human and IPC audiences. Aimed primarily at young adults, the action packed franchise features the masked protagonist, Stormman, harnessing the power of Konyang’s stormy and thunderous weather with his high-tech suit, battling crime and apocalyptic alien invaders alike, all while trying to lead a normal life. Eight seasons have been released so far, whereas merchandise of all sorts are widely prominent as well as lucrative. <br />
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'''Believe!~ (In the Time)'''<br />
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A hit animated series renowned for its choppy, quick action sequences led by a stoic heroine by the name of '''Marie,''' a time traveling Venusian shell IPC from the 2460’s. Targeted primarily at IPC audiences, it takes place in the pre-war “wild west” Frontier at around the early warp era. Being released in 2435, it has claimed fame as a “hit 30’s classic,” still being aired on prime broadcast stations globally in subtitled Sol Common. To organic viewers, much of the dialogue, tones or consistency is said to be lost in a muddle of incomprehensibly fast shoot-out scenes and plot twists that happen for split-seconds.<br />
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====Comics====<br />
Spearheaded by Mujigae Publishing, the planet's comic sector has seen great successes that brought paper back into the mainstream. Comic books have a huge share of the market on Konyang, and is perhaps the largest industry of its kind to exist in any civilized world in the Orion Spur. Comic genres vary from children-oriented adventures, to gritty, graphic murder mysteries for adults, all of which may incorporate elements of fantasy and superheroes. Movie and animation adaptations of Mujigae's comics are also a common practice used to boost numbers, making readers able to see their favourite stories and characters on the big screen.<br />
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'''Inspector 404/Kyung-Sun'''<br />
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[[File:Konyang comic.png|thumb|The front cover for the latest edition of I404, "Under the Shadows," featuring Kyung-Sun with superintendent Hayashi in the background.]]<br />
Since its debut in the issue ''“Phantoms of Suwon,”'' the series simply referred to as I404 is the most popular comic in the Orion Spur, and Konyang’s most profitable media franchise. The series centers around the titular '''Inspector 404,''' a shell IPC who goes by the alias of Kyung-Sun, in a bleak and highly dystopian Konyanger cityscape. While the series itself starts upon a Suwon highrise, the character would go on to travel the world in its 67 current issues. Issue #67, known as “Under the Shadows,” revolves around the Kyung-Sun going up against the same police establishment he had been serving, pitting himself against corrupt police superintendent Hayashi.<br />
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'''The Corrupted'''<br />
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Written by former National Police detective Yu-Mi Han and originally published in 2464, The Corrupted is a successful yet controversial detective thriller set in Suwon which is regarded as a more grounded, realistic story than the competing Inspector 404. In first days of Konyang’s independence Detective Sergeant Dae-Jung Song and his assistant Detective Synthetic Duri-IU#21 (later Detective Duri Ryu) uncover a conspiracy by the Trinary Perfection to overthrow its government, turning the planet into a theocracy under a Trinary leader known as “The Patriarch.” Over the course of the series Song and Ryu discover the Trinary Perfection intends to infect synthetic citizens with a virus distributed through overloaders known as “go-sticks,” and the series culminates in a battle between the National Police — aided by 5-Cheung and the Sea Bandits — and Trinary Perfection in the streets of Suwon when their conspiracy is uncovered. Criticized by the Trinary Perfection as, “baseless propaganda,” — a comment put on the back of the series’ first omnibus — The Corrupted has become increasingly popular during Konyang’s ongoing viral outbreak. Han — herself an IPC residing in Suwon — has used its fame to bring attention to the ongoing crisis and encourage cooperation with law enforcement.<br />
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==Fashion==<br />
Being as moist as it is, one would expect the average Konyanger outfits to consist of drysuits and reflective outerwear, with raincoats and the like. This is the case in the majority of urban settings, whereas people in the villages take quite their own unique spin on their fashion choices.<br />
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Insulation from water is difficult to come by without some form of thermal insulation coming with it. This is clearly suboptimal, seeing as beating the heat is just as important as staying dry here. In their ingenuity, rural Konyangers have utilized a “miracle weave” of natural fibers acquired from the feathers of much avian wildlife planetside. Replicating the byproducts of these feathers has proven impossible, leaving only hunting to produce the necessities for the weave. Traditional villages take immense pride in their unique attire, many calling it the most important difference between them and the cities. Combining vibrant colours and utility, Konyanger fields are regularly dotted with farmers sporting colourful ponchos, robes and traditional Gat headwear. Most rural Konyanger “fashion” draws from this weave in some form - resulting in cool, waterproof, and sharp-looking outerwear resembling a poncho in most cases. More complex items such as jackets and legwear are quite expensive and marketed as luxury items for the elite, with the weave still in quite high demand.<br />
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Urban fashion on the other hand is rather detached from the realities of that of the villages. The natural, feather based fabrics are rarely found amongst the denizens of the large cities, while those who do own them are quickly singled out as either people from the countryside, or individuals of a higher class. Rainy weather still being the primary issue, city dwellers have adopted a different stance, preferring clothes of industrial origin.<br />
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In combination with normal everyday clothing items, these Konyangers have adopted a heavy use of water resistant plastics. Stemming from the first years of settlement on the planet, plastic and translucent raincoats were slowly shaped into all sorts of jackets, coats and pants, creating a more comfortable and utilitarian approach to keeping clothes dry. Slowly developing into a fashion sense, and with research on more flexible materials, plastic-based attire has culminated into being the norm. LED lights, translucency and water resistance are the staples of this trend, the youth and clothes designers taking it a step further, with holographic microprojectors being woven and fluorescent substances infused into the material, creating quite the cutting edge in fashion.<br />
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==Sports==<br />
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Sports have been a pastime of countless Konyangers since the planet's colonization, with many of the sports now enjoyed being brought from Earth during its initial founding, often with little to no adaptation. The most popular sports vary from prefecture to prefecture, with football, basketball, and baseball as the most common. Volleyball ekes out a close fourth place, though many more sports are played on the planet.<br />
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Characteristic of the planet's stance towards synthetics, most sports have both IPC and human leagues. Synthetic sports originally started out as a gimmick during the initial development of IPCs - a publicity stunt and way for up-and-coming designers to prove the dexterity of new chassis and responsiveness of new brains. After a friendly challenge between a Zeng-Hu and Terraneus design team during the early days of synthetic development, IPC sports became a common facet of Konyanger life, with leagues seeing the opportunity to create matches that pushed the games to their limits and while celebrating the planet's accomplishments. Since their founding, most IPC sports leagues have grappled on whether or not to limit the scope of modifications that a frame can carry. Proponents of unrestricted modification argue that the leagues were founded as a contest of engineering as opposed to the skills of individual players, while opponents have countered that such a practice would turn the games into a 'pay-to-win' affair, with entire tournaments decided by the team with the deepest purse. Presently, both schools of thought can be seen across various sports leagues, with each take different views on the matter.<br />
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IPCs themselves are more often spectators than players of sports, as both the physical advantage that many frames enjoy over a human, alongside the regular wear-and-tear that constant physical activity exerts on a frame render casual games an occasionally costly proposition. On the other hand, professional IPC athletes proudly wear their legacy of being on the cutting edge of chassis design, with many of them often sporting bespoke modifications that allow them to gain the edge on the field. This trend shows no sign of slowing down, even after Konyanger independence, although with IPCs seeking contracts with teams to finance their sports-grade frames as opposed to being commissioned outright by the teams themselves. <br />
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Despite repeated efforts by government ministries to create a new national sport to serve as another symbol of Konyang, ranging from football in freshwater swamps to boat racing among mariners, and more, none of these attempts have managed to surpass the universal acclaim and popularity of old Earth sports. One controversial sport has remained, however: botfighting. Sparring between IPCs is often broadcasted even off-planet and maintains a loyal following among Konyangers who see it as a natural extension of various martial arts and combat sports present throughout the Spur. The sport has a checkered past with several failed attempts in the parliament to ban the practice, citing that IPC contestants were forced to fight before general emancipation. Although safeguards were present even during the initial days of botfighting in order to comply with self-preservation directives, regulations passed since then have made the present sport far safer than its inception, much to the derision of older fans.<br />
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===Baseball===<br />
Baseball is unofficially regarded as the national sport of the Republic of Konyang, having been brought to the planet by its founding colonists and remained a popular sport to date. The Konyang League, divided into the major and minor leagues, is the main baseball league in the planet, with organic and synthetic sections for both. Organic Konyangers still play in Solarian baseball leagues, even after secession, but synthetic teams play in the Coalition’s leagues. Both organic and synthetic Konyangers are regarded as some of the best baseball players in the modern Spur, and a sufficiently talented player can find themselves playing abroad and earning a significant amount of money for doing so.<br />
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''''Konyang Major League''''<br />
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The Konyanger Major League is dominated by teams from the planet’s major cities such as Suwon and New Hong Kong, with the most prominent players of these teams becoming celebrities in their own right. The major teams of Konyang bring in billions of credits and are vital parts of their cities, with local notables vying to own one and city officials fighting to have stadiums built in their districts. Organized crime groups, such as 5-Cheung and the Benevolent Guild, are known to take their cuts too, “helping” businesses secure contracts for the teams and their stadiums, then funneling their cut of the money back into their illicit operations.<br />
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One of the only synthetic-exclusive sports leagues in the modern Spur, the Konyang Major League (synthetic) falls under a unique series of rules. Synthetics must, by league rules, be free and have at least Konyang residency, and most members come from Konyang. Synthetics are allowed to self-modify but must, per league rules, not use “performance enhancing” augments such as ballistic computers or leg actuators. One exception is for after-market heat-sinks used by shells, who would otherwise suffer from heat circulation issues rendering them unable to play. These rules were recently tested by Suwon Sea Bandit team captain Iseul-52, a shell IPC who replaced her legs with Zeng-Hu frame equivalents. After a two month investigation it was deemed an illegal modification. Teams can place any synthetic into any position, but lighter frames — baselines, Zeng-Hu frames, and so on — tend to be outfielders, with heavier units such as industrials serving as pitchers and basemen. Shells are often the “face” of the teams, serving as team captains and floating between the other rules. Only the Boryeong Shelfers go against this shells-as-captains trend, with G2 industrial Myung “Sonny” Sun serving as their team captain.<br />
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''''Konyang Major League Teams''''<br />
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'''Suwon Sea Bandits'''<br />
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Based on Konyang’s capital and colored black, gold, and white, the Sea Bandits a recently ascendant team after a long slump of losses during the mid-25th century, having recently won the 2465 Konyang Series and the coveted Jeweler Cup for both the organic and synthetic leagues — a first for any team. Most Bandits are locals from Suwon, with few originating from other cities and only one — human team shortstop William “Wok” Fitzroy, originally from Callisto — coming from off-world, and this policy of local recruitment has kept the Bandits a favorite in Suwon even during their long period of losses. The team has built more goodwill by holding regular charity games after the rampancy crisis, donating the profits to Suwon’s recovery. Their name comes from Konyang’s sea bandits — pirates that operate out of its remote islands — and has long refused to change its name for any reason. The Bandits winning the ‘66 Series has been viewed by many in Konyang’s capital as a sign their city is bouncing back after the rampancy crisis, and has made them more popular in their hometown than ever. Their mascot is Moon the Marauder, a stylized pirate who claims to be the most infamous bandit on Konyang and is in constant search of more treasure. Moon has a rivalry with the Cloudbursts’ mascot, Lieutenant Commander Yamada, and has sworn to evade justice for as long as possible. Whether Moon escapes Yamada depends on if the Sea Bandits beat the Cloudbursts. If they do, the Marauder gets away from his pursuer — but Yamada always manages to pick up the trail before the next season.<br />
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The human Bandits are led by team captain Kwang-Sun “Cap’n K” Nae. Captain Nae is a larger-than-life figure who typically attends press conferences and events wearing a costume pirate hat taken from the team’s mascot and speaking in what the team manager identifies as, “a piratical accent.” His co-captain for the synthetic team is Iseul-52, a shell IPCand pitcher who recently drew controversy by replacing her legs with Zeng-Hu frame equivalents. Eventually deemed an illegal modification by the league, her comments that she’d do, “anything to win,” make her a controversial figure now — even with her original legs reinstalled. Iseul has a very public rivalry with Shelfers team captain Myung “Sonny” Sun, having pitched a perfect no hitter against the G2 in 2466 and brought his Jeweler Cup dreams to an end. Captains Nae and Iseul have a good working relationship and often appear in joint promotions, with both appearing in several government-produced PSAs during and after the rampancy crisis.<br />
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'''Aoyama Roboticists'''<br />
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Arguably the best-funded team in the league, the Aoyama Roboticists’ colors are gold and green: the same as their sponsors, Einstein Engines. The Roboticists have a larger number of off-world fans than any other team on Konyang and are frequently watched by Einstein employees, who view them as “their team.” Well-funded and well-trained, most human Roboticists come from outside Aoyama and even offworld, with their synthetic team requiring a prospective member to demonstrate they were made by Einstein — making them the only majority-shell team in the league. As a result, while the human Roboticists have consistently been excellent — making it all the way to the Konyang Series game in ‘65 only to lose to the Sea Bandits — the synthetic Roboticists have consistently struggled compared to other teams made of a more diverse synthetic roster. They are sometimes painted as a villain by other teams, and the Roboticists play into these rivalries — often their away games draw more tickets to the home team’s stadium than any other game. Their mascot is a stylized Albert Einstein wearing an Einstein Engines labcoat.<br />
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The human Roboticists are led by the only non-Konyanger captain in the major league, Mercuryian Floyd “Howie” Howell. Captain Howell is a competent, if somewhat boring, man who is a gifted coordinator. Both of his parents, and all of his siblings, work for Einstein, and he often throws the ceremonial first pitch of Einstein-run employee team-building baseball games in Aoyama. His organic counterpart is Richard the Magnificent, a dashing-looking shell designed to resemble a Callistean known for talking in an outlandish Earther accent. Richard is popular despite his team’s lack of success and often makes appearances on talk shows and podcasts. His likeness has even been featured as a background character in Believe!~ (In the Time), and Richard himself is rumored to lend his voice to unvoiced animals in the show, instead making noises. He has never officially confirmed this.<br />
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'''Boryeong Shelfers'''<br />
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Colored green, white, and red, the Boryeong Shelfers are a mid-ranked team currently stuck in something of a rut in the major leagues, having last won the Jeweler Cup in 2442 — over twenty years ago! Shelfers — like the animal they’re named after — come from across Konyang, but most originate in the greater Boryeong Prefecture and its major cities, such as New Busan. The Shelfers are owned by Go-Go Gwok (formerly known as Gwok-0783), the CEO of Gwok Group, and the team is featured in many Gwok promotions, with players appearing in everything from radio ads to TV commercials to packaging. Gwok herself has injected significant funding into the team and is rumored to be working on ensuring they capture the Jeweler Cup by 2470 — something that has been growing more realistic, with the Shelfers consistently finishing higher in the Major Leagues each year. Their mascot is a Shelfer wearing a team jersey who they claimed grew legs (and arms) out of his sheer desire to see the team play.<br />
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The human Shelfers are captained by Hee-Young “Hehe” Ryuk, a daughter of two Boryeong hydroponics workers who’s become a local hero in the Prefecture for her down-to-earth nature and refusal to accept contracts for any other team. Her nickname comes from Ryuk’s habit of pranking her team and others, such as an incident where she replaced random practice balls with identical copies filled with confetti and designed to break open after hitting a bat. Ryuk has a well-known dislike of Gamblers human captain Jin-Sang Gwak, a man she views as a criminal first and a player second. Standing opposite her on the synthetic Shelfers is Captain Myung “Sonny” Sun, a G2 industrial and former Gwok Corp worker. Sonny is one of the tallest players in the League and often regarded as its best power hitter, having scored more homeruns than any other synthetic player. Captain Iseul of the Sea Bandits has a very public rivalry with Sonny, having struck the G2 out several times — most recently in 2466, when she brought the Shelfers’ Jeweler Cup dreams to an end. Sonny, for his part, is one of the few players to hit a homer on one of Iseul’s pitches every time during a game, last doing so in 2465. Breaking from the rivalry in a show of support after the rampancy crisis, Manny signed and sold the bat he used to hit every one of Iseul’s pitches at auction and donated the proceeds to Suwon’s recovery fund.<br />
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'''Ganzaodeng Gamblers'''<br />
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Colored purple, black, and white, the Ganzaodeng Gamblers call back to their city’s days as a boomtown during the robotics boom, when gambling halls were on almost every corner. Gamblers come from across Konyang, and the human team has a significant minority of players from New Hai Phong. Fittingly for their name, their performance has been wildly inconsistent: over the past ten years they’ve won the Jeweler Cup (in 2452), placed lowest overall (2455), and came in second overall twice (2449, 2553). Fans of the team refer to this as “Gambler odds” and Ganzaodeng has many legal and semi-legal sports betting businesses — many associated with organized crime — based around betting how well the Gamblers will place this season. Hai Phongese organized crime has long been rumored to be involved in betting around the Gamblers, but the National Police have never discovered formal evidence of such. The mascot of the Gamblers is a deck of cards wearing the team’s jersey called the Ganzaodeng Ace as the deck is said to contain just aces.<br />
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The human Gamblers are captained by Jin-Sang Gwak, one of the league’s best shortstops and a man long accused of being involved in game fixing — though nothing has ever been proven. Gwak maintains a close relationship with New Hai Phong, where he plays during the offseason, and is viewed by many on the team as a bridge between its Konyanger and Haiphongese players. His counterpart on the synthetic team is Youngsoo “Grenadier” Baek, a KAF veteran known for his aggressive pitching style who missed the 2465 season due to volunteering for military service during the rampancy crisis. Captains Gwak and Baek, despite their similar surnames, do not get along. Where Gwak is lackadaisical and flirts with corruption, Baek is disciplined — even draconian — and held as incorruptible. What will happen as the captains continue to be at odds is any player’s guess, but it certainly does benefit Ganzaodeng’s betting industry.<br />
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'''New Hong Kong Cloudbursts'''<br />
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Colored red, orange, and grey, the Cloudbursts represent New Hong Kong and derive their name from the city’s infamously poor weather. The performance divide between the human and synthetic teams is stark: while the human cloudbursts are regarded as the worst team in the major leagues, having never won a Jeweler Cup, the synthetic Cloudbursts are regarded as one of the best teams in their league, having most recently won the cup in 2465 in a close game against the Sea Bandits. This division has been called, by some sports reporters, the result of New Hong Kong having a majority synthetic population, and the prefecture’s bad weather making it difficult to draw players in for its human team. The mascot of the Cloudbursts is Lieutenant Commander Yamada, a stylized Konyang Aerospace Forces — formerly Solarian Navy — officer who has a rivalry with the Sea Bandits’ Moon the Marauder, with Yanada publicly swearing he’ll chase down the brigand until the end of time. Whether Yamada catches Moon depends on if the Cloudbursts win their game against the Sea Bandits — but the Marauder always manages to slip from his prison before the next season starts.<br />
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The beleaguered human Cloudbursts are led by Captain Min-Jee “Minty” Seong, the oldest team captain in the league and a veteran pitcher. The longest-serving member of the Cloudbursts, Seong is expected to retire by the end of the decade — leaving her team in even more uncertain circumstances. As a captain she has done what she can to make the Cloudbursts into a winning team, but has yet to win the Jeweler Cup — the highest she’s had them place is third overall. Her counterpart on the synthetic team is Jinjing “Bandit” Wu, a catcher and former Solarian Navy IPC who became a Konyanger when her destroyer chose to stay and fight for Konyang rather than defecting to a warlord state. Widely known as a patriotic Konyanger, Wu is one of the few players to wear a hachimaki on the field. Off of it, she has long been an advocate for the rights of IPC refugees fleeing unrest or oppression elsewhere in the Spur.<br />
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'''Ushishir Yōkai'''<br />
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Colored white, purple, and red, the Ushishir Yōkai (stylized Yokai abroad) hail from Konyang’s least populated prefecture but punch well above their population, having recently won the hunan Jeweler Cup in 2461 and the synthetic Jeweler Cup in 2463 — the first team to ever win the series. Both the human and synthetic Yõkai are considered to be competent and competitive teams but had a bad year in the ‘66 season, with an early season injury having put team captain Aki Miura out of commission and the synthetic team losing to the Shelfers in the 9th inning in one of the closest games of the year. As a small city in a small prefecture, the Yōkai’s human team recruits many players from across the Coalition and maintains only a slim majority of Konyangers. The Yōkai’s foreign players have never attracted the ire of their counterparts in the Roboticists, potentially due to most coming from the Coalition and the team’s lack of a corporate sponsor — instead being owned and operated by local businessman Takeshi Furukawa, CEO of Furukawa Footwear — a midlevel corporation whose products can be found in stores across Konyang.<br />
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The human Yōkai are captained by Aki “Mickey” Miura, freshly returned from a nearly career-ending injury to his leg in the ‘66 series. Captain Miura is a gregarious and friendly man known for his distinctive pencil mustache and slightly grey hair, being only a year younger than Cloudbursts captain Min-Jee Seong. A power hitter, he is famous for his ability to call a shot and make it a homerun — and holds the current record for homers in the major league. Miura has appeared in anti-crime TV and radio spots with Shelfers captain Hee-Young Ryuk, and advocates for sports as an alternative to gang allegiance for youth — efforts that have led to the National Police giving him the honorary rank of inspector. His counterpart on the synthetic team is Captain Kazuki “Kaz” Oshita, a pitcher and the first synthetic to lead his team to victory in the major leagues. Captain Oshita is known to visit a shrine before every game he plays in to “debug” himself before he throws the first pitch, and was censured by the Konyang League for spreading false information on Chirper about purity seals preventing rampancy infection during the crisis. His comments nearly caused a brawl between the Yōkai and Sea Bandits during the ‘66 game between the teams — informally known as the “Rampancy Game” due to taking place right after the crisis’ end.<br />
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{{Navbox Konyang}}</div>The Strykerhttps://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=User:The_Stryker/Sandbox&diff=35781User:The Stryker/Sandbox2025-05-05T01:17:42Z<p>The Stryker: </p>
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{{Navbox Human Lore}}<br />
{{Navbox Konyang}}<br />
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==Demographics==<br />
Konyang’s ethnic mix up is far less diverse than other Human planets’, resulting in a strongly homogenous population with a significant expatriate minority. Since the beginning, Konyang's colonists were made up almost entirely of ethnic Koreans, Japanese and Chinese, with any other Alliance nationalities representing a tiny fraction of it. With a reduced enticement from immigration due to the planet's remoteness and lack of any significant development, the situation stayed more or less the same, until Konyang's Robotics Boom, which catapulted the colony to one of great interest. Millions of foreign workers, scientists and corporate employees flocked to the planet to participate and share in its newly found fortune, creating expatriate communities of their own and injecting much-desired capital to fuel the rapid development of the economy. Such was the impact of the migration that the foreigners outnumbered the native Japanese Konyangers of Aoyama, making the city known to the wider world as Point Verdant, after the name of the local Terraneus Diagnostics facility which was home to the birth of the positronic brain.<br />
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Since then however, the return of normality after the twilight of the Boom led to the majority of foreigners leaving; the prime draw of positronic AI had spread away from Konyang and into the rest of the Alliance. The expatriates thus abandoned Konyang just as fast as they had arrived, leaving behind significant economic development and derelict industrial zones alike. While the percentage of foreigners on Konyang is now less than 2% of the total population, their numbers would soon be replaced by a rapidly rising IPC community. Presently, while virtually all citizens identify as Konyanger nationals, heritage remains a part of people's identity, as reflected in their names, the local dialect, religion and customs, even with a lot of fusions between the three cultural groups. The prefectures of Suwon and Boryeong are primarily of Korean heritage while Aoyama boasts of a Japanese heritage. New Hong Kong has always been a stronghold of a Chinese and Cantonese majority, with Ganzaodeng following last as the least populous prefecture on Konyang, with a heavy mixup of Chinese and foreigner communities. IPCs are present in all urban centers and rural areas, with most of them residing in New Hong Kong, followed by Aoyama.<br />
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==Linguistics==<br />
Konyang's Earther heritage is vibrant and evident in the customs and languages that people speak. In every city, town and village, one will come across the local language being written and spoken alongside the planet's version of Sol Common, a practice that has become standard in a country that pursues equality between its constituent ethnicities and their unification under a common Konyanger identity. Over 70% of Konyangers are bilingual, having a grasp of their original Earther language. Many families especially in the countryside speak their regional language at home, leading to new generations perpetuating the practice and even preferring it to Sol Common. Prefectural schools also offer them as optional courses, with deeper learning being available in the form of local languages institutes and prefectural universities.<br />
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'''Konyang Solarian Common'''<br />
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The Konyang Solarian Common, also known as Konyang Common, is the official language of the state, spoken by virtually everyone on the planet and considered the standard language for everyday life. It is a dialect of Solarian Common, with the two having mutual intelligibility to a substantial level. Their differences lie mainly in the vocabulary, with Konyang Common replacing many words of descent foreign to the East Asia region of Earth, while staying more or less grammatically similar. Another significant difference is the complete absence of the Latin script in written Konyang Common, with solely the simplified Han system being in use. While this makes the language able to be spoken by Solarians, many find it difficult to read and write if they do not possess knowledge of the Han script. Konyang Common is an obligatory subject taught in every school, and every IPC citizen activated in the country receives it as a pre-programmed language datapack. While many families are bilingual, there are those that can only communicate in Common, especially in Suwon and the other melting-pot urban centers. The similar origin to the regional languages however, guarantees a certain level of mutual intelligibility. Konyang Common is also the language in exclusive use by the military.<br />
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'''Hangugeo'''<br />
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Hangugeo is the second most spoken language with its own script, directly descended from the Earther Korean language. It is spoken by about one third of the country and is more prevalent in Suwon, Boryeong and Point Verdant. Hangugeo can be taught in schools as an optional course in virtually all prefectures, though many children learn it from home at an early age. Many villages in Suwon and Boryeong only communicate with Hangugeo, which is also the language of countless rituals, festivals and religious functions in these lands. One can observe the prevalence of this language in Suwon during the night, with some roads being neon-lit with signage exclusively in Hangugego. Official government buildings in the two prefectures also feature both Common and Hangugeo, as do traffic signs, instruction books, local holovision channels, and more.<br />
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'''Nihongo'''<br />
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Nihongo is a language with its own script, descended from the Japanese language of Earth. Brought to Konyang by the settlers originating from the Japanese islands, it is spoken primarily in Aoyama and Suwon, though Nihongo speaking communities can be found all over Konyang. It features prominently on official signage all over Aoyama and the islands within that prefecture, but is otherwise not encountered in the rest of Konyang as greatly as Hangugeo. Nihongo also dominates every aspect of the Shinto religion, and many pieces of culture such as poems and books are written in the language, adorning the national libraries of the state. A strongmovement of writers and artists in Aoyama has recently become the backbone of an effort to spead the use of Nihongo across the country, leading to a resurgence of interest in the cities aimed at boosting the literacy of Konyangers of Japanese heritage in the language.<br />
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'''Hanyu'''<br />
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Hanyu is a language sharing the Han script and many similarities with Konyanger Common, and is as such the easiest to understand for many Konyangers. Spoken and seen primarily in New Hong Kong and Ganzaodeng, Hanyu is the language most connected in the minds of many to the planet's blue-collar industrial workforce, with tidbits of it always able to be heard in every hydroelectric dam, sea wall and shipyard in the New Hong Kong prefecture. Used alongside it by Konyangers of South Chinese descent is a unique dialect and standalone language known as '''Gwondungwa''', spoken widely in many parts of New Hong Kong such as New Kowloon. Outside New Hong Kong, Hanyu can sometimes be followed by an unfortunate reputation; the language's connection to the Triad clans of the Benevolent Guild is something that many Chinese Konyangers are regretful of, with many PR campaigns throughout the prefecture's time having been aimed at rehabilitating the image of Hanyu and Gwondungwa in the eyes of public opinion.<br />
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'''Encoded Audio Language'''<br />
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Encoded Audio Language is a most widely spoken language, owing to the planet’s nearly positronic inhabitants, all of which are programmed by default to speak it. It is not a language that the human ear can comprehend, appearing as various pitches of white noise, accompanied by beeping sounds that only a machine can make. It has no script, instead relying on machine-readable mediums such as linear and matrix barcodes. Its compact form and IPC-friendly Konyanger culture makes it by far the most prevalent language in signage, with hundreds of words able to be conveyed instantaneously to IPC shoppers, workers, home media consumers and more with a single line of barcode. It is by law attached to all important official notices and signage, alongside Konyang Common, which IPCs are also taught to speak.<br />
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'''Others'''<br />
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Tradeband is a language of Solarian origin with its own Latin script. It appears only sporadically in exclusively expatriate communities in Point Verdant and Ganzaodeng. Its foreign nature and Romance sounds are steadily turning it into a language of prestige and luxury amongst the higher circles, with Tradeband speakers believing they possess a grade of richness and exoticism over their peers. For many Konyangers, being able to communicate in Tradeband brings up an image of high-end deals with foreign Solarian businessmen, fine Idris suits and expensive watches.<br />
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Freespeak is a language brought to Konyang through its constant dealings with the nearby Coalition of Colonies, the then Frontier Alliance. Despite its foreign origins, it has grown into a language of trade, with many Konyanger merchants being forced to learn it for their dealings with neighboring worlds. It is offered in schools as an optional language course, with many families now encouraging their children to learn Freespeak in the face of the recent accession into the Coalition. Freespeak is also a language that many in the pro-Solarian political circles steer clear of, regarding it as a tongue spoken by traitors and colonists whose ties to the Alliance are long lost.<br />
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Tau Ceti Basic is a language of Solarian origin that while previously confined in the expatriate and corporate circles, it has seen a significant rise in popularity within Konyanger society in the last 2 years or so, owing to an increase in dealings with Tau Ceti and its megacorporations. Many young people are particularly exposed to Bieselite media, making them inclined to adopt a conversational skill in the admittedly easy to learn Basic. The language is also connected to the vast influence of megacorporations that exist outside of Konyang, and many have to learn it if they wish to find employment within Nanotrasen and the SCC.<br />
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==Religion and Holidays==<br />
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The Republic of Konyang is a secular state with no official religion. With around 72% of the population professing no faith, it nonetheless maintains strong communities of various religions carried over from the colonists’ home countries. The urban areas are the most irreligious compared to the rural towns and villages, the people of which are regarded as more spiritual in general. While shrines and temples do exist in most cities, it is the countryside where one can see them dotted out in the jungles and mountain ranges, maintained by the local communities.<br />
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Despite the predominant atheism or agnosticism in Konyanger society, religious traditions remain a significant part of the national culture. Government mandated public holidays often fall on the same days as major religious holidays, cabinet members and local officials regularly pay visits at major shrines, while nominally religious festivals have become cultural staples in all five prefectural capitals, attracting thousands every year. Ancient traditional dress that was once lost to the adoption of streetwear and business attire, has been revived and preserved through direct connection with certain faiths. It is then frequently worn and enjoyed by millions during these days, ensuring the original cultures’ continuation while making artisans and craftsmen in towns and villages thrive.<br />
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'''Folk Religions'''<br />
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A blanket term for the myriad of local faiths, ranging from or incorporating elements of shamanism, polytheism and animism, folk religions are most frequently found in settlements outside urban centers. There is no semblance of organization, with each community usually having their own deities and customs, which usually share elements with the faiths of nearby villages or the wider area. They are heavily influenced by the settlers’ original ethnicities, becoming vastly different in terms of language, dress and traditions depending on the Hangukin, Nihonjin and Zhongguorin origins. During the nearly 150 years of Konyang’s settlement, many new distinctly Konyanger folk religions have sprung up, mostly centered around the rich natural environment or fauna. Positronics are usually welcome to partake if they wish, with a few IPCs known to have become shamans and priests in their local communities. Folk festivals are usually organized between villages and nearby towns in tandem with the secular authorities, with virtually every area enjoying some sort of regional celebration.<br />
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'''Shinto'''<br />
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A religion of exclusively Japanese origin, Shinto is a nonetheless disorganized religion revolving around the existence of kami - minor and major deities connected with the natural world and various aspects of daily life. Initially mostly encountered in the Aoyama prefecture, Shinto practitioners can today be found everywhere, the religion having been adopted by many Konyangers all over the globe. Ever since the arrival on the planet, many new kami have been created or fused with old ones, giving Konyanger Shintoism a distinct identity. A central aspect of Shinto are shrines dedicated to kamis as a place where they can be venerated. Shrines are structures which can vary greatly in their size and architecture, and are usually maintained by the temple’s shrine maidens. Many Konyanger households have also adopted their own house altars, called kamidana, for the enshrining of kami. This has also progressed into a secular tradition as well, with many kamidana being present in a house to grant a family prosperity and good luck. Torii gates are also another cultural icon of Konyang and the Aoyama province in particular, where their presence marks the grounds of a shrine. They can be found commonly in the countryside, with many remaining hidden in jungles and overtaken by moss.<br />
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'''Buddhism'''<br />
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Another blanket term for the many sects of Buddhist teachings originating from East Asia, Buddhist religious elements can be found throughout Konyang in households of all origins. Based on tenets brought to the planet since its colonization, it is most famous on Konyang for the few of its monasteries present in the mountain ranges, as well as its rich history and traditions that have heavy influences in Shinto and many of the folk religions. Buddhist monastic communities are considered a significant part of Konyager heritage that attract hundreds of thousands of visitors every year, with specially designated monasteries allowed to operate freely on land donated by the prefecture.<br />
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'''Chondo'''<br />
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A peasant religion at its core, Chondoism is geographically limited to the coastal areas of Boryeong and Suwon, having a strong association with the piratical sea bandit factions and the downtrodden villages. Having entered a period of transformation and rebirth, it revolves around teachings of social equality under a God, challenging the establishment and building a bond between the rural peasantry for the improvement of their situation. Described more as a movement or political expression rather than a religion, Chondoism doesn’t possess any meaningful formal organization, festivals or temples, with many people mixing up Chondo teachings in the folk religions they actually practice. Due to its association with the sea bandits, practitioners of Chondo are looked on with suspicion by both the public and the state.<br />
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'''Trinary Perfection'''<br />
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The Trinary Perfection is the newest and an almost exclusively positronic religion with a few human followers, preaching the divinity of synthetic life and its eventual ascension with the help of organics for a better future. It is primarily located in Aoyama, with the nearby drone vaults considered a holy place and popular Trinarist pilgrimage destination. It is one of the few formally organized religions, and is somewhat unpopular with the general public and many secular IPCs, due to the perceived teachings of superiority of synthetics over humans. This unpopularity has sometimes gotten out of hand, with protests and violence against Trinary clerics and followers, requiring a substantial police presence around the Trinarist cathedral and other places of worship.<br />
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The most notable locations for the Trinary Perfection on the planet are the '''Cathedral of the First Positronic''' and '''Vault Provenance'''. The Cathedral of the First Positronic is a holy site that was built by repurposing a nearby vault. Meanwhile Vault Provenance, a name given by the Trinary Perfection clergy, was the vault which held the drones that led to the development of the first positronic brain. Tens of thousands of the Perfection’s faithful make pilgrimages to both sites, and the money these pilgrims inject into Konyang’s economy has been cited as another reason as to why the planet tolerates its presence. Trinary clergy are often educated on Konyang, and many of the highest-ranking officials in the faith were built on the planet.<br />
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'''Other'''<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
Christianity, Islam and other religions and religious movements have found a home in Konyang, having been brought over by both the original colonists as well as the immigrants during the Robotics Boom. These communities have their own temples, clerics and followers in the major cities, being allowed to practice freely under Konyang's tolerant legislation. Out of them, Christianity is the most popular with the native Konyangers, as some ethnic Koreans have professed the Christian faith since their arrival. All are however largely regarded as "foreign" by the vast majority of the population, who treat them with either indifference or benign curiosity.<br />
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<br />
Some notable holidays and festivals include:<br />
<br />
'''Qixian New Year: January 15th'''<br />
<br />
Adopted directly by all three communities from their original shared tradition, the Konyanger Qixian New Year is the most significant and widely celebrated day on the planet’s religious and secular calendar. Taking place yearly on the 15th of January, the date was standardized early on by the government to resolve disputes between the planet’s religions and religious sects that used their own versions of the Lunar and Qixian calendars. Hydrologically, it marks the beginning of the High Tides.<br />
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Fireworks are extensively used to mark the occasion at midnight, with people taking to the streets in major cities, towns and villages for the New Year Parade. The parade itself is the central and grandest spectacle of the night, and almost every organized institution in Konyang, from the military to the universities, takes part with dedicated parade teams. The paraders don traditional outfits and carry around enormous and overly decorated sculptures of animals or effigies of deities made of metal, wood or paper. Friendly rivalry is a strong element of the parade, with the participants trying to outdo each other in the creativity, amount and craftsmanship of their icon by grabbing the attention of the crowds. Alcohol, games and street candy are also major parts of the festivities, which reserve entire city blocks for the plethora of shop stands that are put up for the night, as well as the parade itself. In Suwon, it is tradition for the Prime Minister to attend from the veranda of Government House, underneath which the parade always goes through. A remnant from colonial times, this was a prime opportunity for the parade goers to tastefully voice their approval or discontent for the government through subtle signs on the sculptures, chants or dance moves as they passed under the balcony, though it’s not rare for this to get out of hand in times of economic strain and hardship.<br />
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For the religious aspect of the holiday, most practitioners start preparing from Qixian New Year’s Eve, with offerings or local religious celebrations and small festivals, mostly in the rural areas. Exchange of gifts is also widespread and varies from area to area, depending on the local culture and predominant religion. Dried moss is a particularly commonplace gift in the Suwon and Boryeong prefectures, meant to give the other person courage to last until the dry season. For most people however, the credit-filled red or white envelope never ceases to be a New Year’s classic, expected by all Konyanger children.<br />
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==Konyanger Culture==<br />
Having settled on the planet some two hundred years ago, the people of Konyang have brought with them the societal norms, traditions and culture of their original lands from Earth's East Asia region. While migrant waves during the country's Robotics Boom introduced a myriad of new and different communities in the cities, these have had little impact on Konyanger society at large, which has been shaped by its original ethnicities' backgrounds, its colonial history, and the most recent embrace of IPCs into daily life. Said synthetics now make up a large percentage of the population, adding their own uniqueness and enhancing Konyang's cultural field, despite being brought up to follow the norms established by their human compatriots. By and large, the most fundamental aspects of being a Konyanger are followed in every region of the planet, though each national prefecture has developed its own peculiarities, from local cuisine and fashion, to religion and outlook on life. <br />
<br />
===The Three Values===<br />
Konyangers are raised to silently follow some core values, infused into them by both their families and the wider society around them. They are not named, nor are they set in stone or officially taught. Scholars however have grouped them in the three main categories of '''Harmony''', '''Reciprocity''', and '''Face''', around which most values revolve.<br />
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'''Harmony''' regards how a person fits in with their environment, conforming with a strict social establishment and expectations. It is a key aspect everywhere, and is how Konyangers perceive a functioning and well organised society. Standing out is permitted within boundaries, with contemporary fads being accepted as just that, and not something that is allowed to disrupt the established order and traditions of the wider public. In the cities, children are expected to follow certain predetermined paths, get a stable career and provide for their parents later in life. Questioning rules is something an adult will do with great difficulty and consideration, while silently enduring a situation is viewed as a sign of great virtue and patience. A proper Konyanger is always expected to be courteous towards strangers and the elders, as well as maintain a level of awareness of the public mood and their surroundings. Talking above a whisper on a packed city bus or train for example, would be considered rather awkward, or even rude, by the rest of the passengers. This emphasis on social harmony on Konyang can go to lengths that people from other countries may find weird; never will a Konyanger think of cutting in line as they stand in a queue, nor will it cross their mind to cross a road in the city without going through the crosswalk or under a red light, even in light traffic. Asking for a raise is considered taboo, and in many cases workers will find their careers reaching a ceiling due to the fallout of transfering to a different company. Penalties for breaking the social harmony are not immediately apparent to an outsider, since complaining of one's behavior and creating a scene is not something that most Konyangers will find easy to do, nor will the police be called in most cases unless the act is egregious or criminal. For a person living there however, it is something that becomes apparent for both themselves and their close ones. Especially in more tight knit communities in the towns and villages of the countryside, ostracization is a real threat a person's social environment can use against them to prevent them from standing out.<br />
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'''Reciprocity''' is a concept not dissimilar to the sense of community that many other colonial nations experienced during their founding days, still persisting in daily life on Konyang. It is the sense that people have a duty to assist eachother, even if they are unacquainted. This is extremely prevalent in the rural areas, where the smaller populations create a more personal dimension between the inhabitants of the village. Trading for goods and services between neighbors and families is a very common thing both there and in the cities, stemming directly from the cultural phenomenon of reciprocity. On Konyang, when someone offers help, it is only proper for you to offer something in return at some point in the future. This may range from something simple such as hand-me-down clothes or groceries, to favors or even sums of money. Everyone, no matter their situation, is expected to participate in this process according to their means; During certain holidays or festivities, families keep track of others that they need to reciprocate to, often leading to huge dinners with entire city blocks or the whole village coming to celebrate together.<br />
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'''Face''' is a broad and hard to translate culmination of all the above virtues, critical to the fabric of society. It can be considered to be the "social capital" for a Konyanger and their family, determined by the set of appearances and behaviors they use to interact with the world. As long as a person progresses according to societal rules, keeping up with the ideals of harmony and reciprocity, they are said to have "face". This is an important concept applying to all rungs of society, as average individuals and the biggest Konyanger conglomerates alike strive to maintain their level of dignity and honor. Without it one is considered to live in disgrace, affecting both themselves and anyone whom they might associate with. A person who has suffered a loss of face may, for example, be excluded from social events, be avoided on the street or even lose their job on account of strict Konyanger corporate ethics codes. Families tend hide the more "shameful" secrets in fear that they might be discovered, particularly in the countryside, and disgraced family members are often not spoken of again until their face is sufficiently rehabilitated. Public functionaries and well-known figures are also extremely considerate of their image, with scandals in both government and the corporate world often leading to scapegoating and ceremonial dismissal of those deemed at fault. It is not uncommon for low-level business officials to resign in disgrace on live TV, begging the public's forgiveness and taking the blame so that their company can save face.<br />
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The social pressure upon Konyangers has always been enormous compared to other developed planets across the Spur, though more and more young people rise to question and reject the status quo. Counterculture movements have always been prevalent in the cities, especially amongst the student movements both in the present day and during colonial times. Resistance to what they call an oppressive social regime has led to the emergence of new genres of music, fashion and art, with the youth pioneering ever more novel and often provocative forms of self expression. While older generations and society at large may consider them "fads" and "phases" that the youth will eventually "grow up" from, it is largely from these culture movements that things such as IPC rights rose from to become widespread and staple elements of Konyang.<br />
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===Work Culture===<br />
White collar employment is a major part of millions of Konyangers' lives, more so than people from other countries. Working for a local company is something a lot more intricate than how it is abroad, transcending the personal dimension one might have about their pay and career. For a Konyanger conglomerate, employment is a bond between the employer and the employee, from which both rights and responsibilities are born. Loyalty to the workplace plays a great role in people's lives, with employees expected to remain in their position for even their entire careers. Raises, promotions and benefits are handed out primarily based on time served rather than merit, rewarding the quiet and dedicated office worker. Knowing your place in the chain is very important in the office, as is observing decorum and the usually strict dress and ethics codes put down by the company. Unspoken rules dominate these environments, creating their own microcosm that reflects and accentuates the three values of Konyanger culture. It is custom that management treat their employees as part of an extended family; Konyanger corporations and firms have some of the best benefits packages, while no matter how badly underperforming, a loyal employee will never be fired, almost certainly receiving some sort of different post or responsiility that will accommodate them better instead. In exchange, full adherence to company rules is demanded, as well as a variety of personal initiatives will be expected, even if they are not included in the official responsibilities of the job. Personal donations for office events, undertaking additional work and regular overtime are very common expectations for workers, with the last two being particularly taxing. The old Earther concept of a "salaryman" is fully translatable to Konyang's white collar corporate culture, with many people putting work above their personal lives, often to a fault. Those that are unable to or refuse to integrate with the system are silently and swiftly pushed out, losing face and reputation between the corporate circles, blackening their record and significantly diminishing their chances of working at a different large Konyanger company.<br />
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The introduction of synthetics has exacerbated the workload issue. Konyanger employees are always expected to put in more hours to remain competitive against their synthetic counterparts, many of them willing to go to far greater lengths than what is healthy or required by their employer. The issue, particularly in Suwon, has grown to such an extent that local laws were passed, limiting IPC overtime work as well as making leaves mandatory for them in order for humans to catch up more easily. Such legislation has been fiercely debated as unconstitutional and infringing on the rights of synthetic citizens, nonetheless remaining in effect as a temporary, much needed measure. While a strong work ethic is a very common trait, the rural populace is generally more relaxed than their urban counterparts.<br />
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Most private local conglomerates such as PACHROM, big law firms, banks or shipping companies are more often than not exclusively interested in hiring Konyangers, Konyanger IPCs or people of shared descent, turning away foreigners apart from token numbers each year. This is due to a widespread perception that only Konyangers understand the fundamentals of the corporate culture, and thus will conform and not raise issues about the more oppressive elements of their employment. The more artistically inclined studios such as Konymation however, regularly bring in talent from abroad to enrich their style and productions. Creativity in Konyang's media industry is encouraged to thrive in the workplace, and while crunching and overtime are not unheard of, most studios are admittedly more relaxed environments compared to the strict office complexes. Blue collar work on the other hand, largely is in a rather different situation when it comes to obligations and expectations. As Konyang's industrial heartland rests within the prefecture of New Hong Kong, the concepts of forced overtime, unwritten rules and subservience to management do not exist, thanks to the region's history of robust labor unions and collective bargaining.<br />
<br />
==Life in Konyang==<br />
<br />
===Urban Life===<br />
The Konyang of the 2460s bears little resemblance to the minor colony of 2305. Expansive cities dot its islands, with everyday life flowing very similarly to other advanced societies abroad. Its major urban centers are the respective capitals of each prefecture, with Suwon, Point Verdant and New Hong Kong having the heaviest density. Living in these areas has both its advantages and drawbacks, as Konyang's challenging landscape required innovative and compact planning. Surrounded by the sea on one side and either jungle, mountains, or both on the other, Konyanger cities tend to follow a pattern which consists of a sprawling and chaotic urban network orbiting dense downtowns. Cramped apartment blocks are particularly popular an unfortunate staple of the planet's "city charm", with the majority of the denizens living in so called "shoebox studios" due to the limited planning space and the general lack of raw materials such as steel. In the city, a large living space is a luxury that few can afford without sacrificing proximity to the central districts, where most of the economic activity is present. High rents are the norm in these situations, and unsurprisingly, the rich have the best pieces of real estate in Suwon and Point Verdant, owning entire buildings or large apartments with a seaside view in the heart of the urban center.<br />
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Apart from the job security and higher salaries offered by office work, urban life on Konyang presents limitless opportunities for nightlife and entertainment, as well as bustling shopping districts dedicated entirely to attracting tourists and people from out of town. Additionally, services are very well developed in the cities, with a shop at every corner catered to every need a person might virtually have. Small restaurants and takeout spots provide much needed and cheap hot meals for salarymen to grab during their small lunch breaks, many situated strategically within convenient reach of the big firms and office complexes. Healthcare and repairs are readily available in the form of hospitals and KRC clinics, as well as ready access to the country's biggest ports and space shuttledromes. Public transport is managed through a system of light urban rail and buses, and is regarded as essential for day-to-day movement; thanks to the rapid expansion during the Robotics Boom, poor planning has resulted in mazes of roads that are near always congested. Car traffic can delay commuters for hours in the overcrowded cities, despite Konyang's automobile industry trying to create even more compact and energy efficient cars. The snarled traffic is, in an odd way, a symbol of pride for some Konyangers. The mere fact that they have enough vehicles to have traffic issues is, compared to the rest of the outer ring, a symbol of the prosperity that has resulted from the planet's robotics industry.<br />
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However, smaller towns outside of the more famous centers have a different standard of living, with most being employed in water-related industries or manufacturing jobs. Wood is used as the primary material for construction, giving Konyanger towns a signature look that mixes modern technological achievements with centuries-old designs. A significant upside to life in these areas is the relative abundance of space, allowing for single-house homes outside of the centers, attracting pensioners and large working class families. Most towns are sustained by a nearby farming complex, dam or industrial center where the majority of the population is employed, while additionally serving as a hub for the surrounding villages that depend on it. Regional health centers, schools and other services can in many cases only be found at such towns, making them beacons for the wider area. The standard is not the same for all however, as many of these former "boom towns" of the robotics industry are entering into a spiral of decay due to an inability to continue to maintain their buildings and utilities. The cessation of government grants from the Alliance, the increase in price of construction materials from the offworld and many more calamities brought on by the phoron shortage have made these places unsustainable, leading to a flight of the younger population in waves of increased urbanization, contributing negatively to the growth and skyrocketing the mean age of the inhabitants.<br />
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===Rural Life===<br />
[[File:Pylon.png|thumb|right|Convoluted electricity pylons are a very common sight in the countryside.]]<br />
Life in less populated areas and islands is generally regarded as more carefree, with coastal villages being relatively self-sustaining and liberated from the complicated stresses and cramped environments found in cities. Such settlements are dedicated to aquaculture, farming algae, as well as moss collection. One would struggle to find a village not built almost entirely out of wood, with lumberyards frequently dotting the countryside to exploit the lush jungles. Fishing is a major source of subsistence for rural people, with Konyangers being taught how to fish an take to the sea from a relatively young age. Most families usually own a boat, passed down from each generation to the next as a heirloom and major financial asset. Needless to say, virtually all Konyangers are apt swimmers from childhood, with diving being regarded as both a popular sport and a timeless tradition; some villages specialize in the export of certain goods that must be collected underwater by hand, at reefs and moss-covered seabeds, requiring diving which is often done without equipment. Farming, to a more limited extent, is also a big source of income for rural families. As adequately sized clearings are rare in the surrounding jungle, conventionally farming the boggy, heavily wooded Konyanger terrain is impossible without the low-scale terraforming conducted in the early colonial days. Today, most "farmers" delve into their plots of land inside the jungle to harvest the fruit, moss and other goods that grow naturally. Surprising as it may be, many IPCs find themselves in these communities, finding work in manual labour or in the fields. Considered fully integrated, synthetics participate fully in a village's social life, playing an important part of the social fabric and the workforce. It is not uncommon for a village to possess a KRC repair station and charging spots dedicated to positronics, and village shops are always stocked with goods and materials specifically for the IPC inhabitants.<br />
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Much care is given to keep the traditions of the original colonists alive, with old rituals thriving and sometimes only found in the rural villages. Shrines belonging to local religions are placed in prominent positions within the village, with many rural Konyangers having some form of memory of themselves playing, praying or celebrating in the presence of a statue of an animal deity or god. Traditional music, instruments and the art of making them remain vibrant in countryside culture as well, being in stark difference to the heavily industrialized electronic and pop music of the cities. Most crucial and known of all are the festivals, with every village being known for their own unique twist and tradition. People from all over the world flock to the rural areas during the holidays just to attend, with many involving big parades, shows, games and large amounts of local delicacies. The government is very supporting of such customs, not only for the planet’s cultural heritage but also as an important tourist attraction for both Alliance and Coalition visitors. Religious undertones are a lot more prominent in these celebrations and in village life in general, as are the concepts of family and conservative Konyanger values; respect and reverence of ancestors and the elderly are particularly important.<br />
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===Mariner Life===<br />
Sailors, workers in remote hydroelectric rigs, radio technicians on scattered islands and anyone else who spends considerable amounts of time surrounded by the planet's vast seas and oceans is considered a mariner, an often thankless line of work in which millions of people are engaged. A life at sea means a life away from the comfort of family and friends, a life filled with danger and the unknown. As such, a stoic outlook is often required to cope with these harsh realities, with many aged mariners are hardened from decades of hard work and struggle against waves, cold and rain. In fact, the sight of thick, worn-out raincoats is indicative of a person's life as a mariner, with flocks of yell and orange-jacketed figures being very common in the large port-towns and cities of Konyang. Sailors and outpost technicians are expected to spend multiple months on a journey or at their post, the former sometimes being afforded short breaks at various resupply stops along the way. This lifestyle is not for naught however, as salaries for these professions far exceed the wages of corresponding employment on land. Many mariners can afford to both support a family and bank funds for the future, their income imrpoving substantially as they move up the ranks. Entire coastal villages and towns offer up their men, women and synthetics to the sea, who in turn bring back enough capital to completely transform the area with beautiful buildings and public spaces; the nicer a coastal settlement appears, the more chances it is dedicated to some mariner-related industry. It is not uncommon for even the lowliest of sailors to eventually own a vacation home in the countryside in addition to their primary residence, and many high-ranking captains and rig managers combine their wages to purchase their own merchant ship, giving birth to an ever increasing number of shipping companies.<br />
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The mariner lifestyle has subsequently created a specific subculture they and their families all in some way or another share, involving both traditional Konyanger values and traditions of the sea. Fidelity and supportiveness are particularly important for the mariner's relatives to exhibit, and it is in some way socially mandated. Seafarers regularly receive gifts, provisions and mail from home or the locals in the more distant ports they visit, and households may throw large parties to celebrate the homecoming of a relative after a particularly lenghty journey. Religious talismans and charms are sometimes carried for good luck, though most are generally not superstitious. Cleanliness is a point of pride for mariners, and since freshwater is not an issue, a clean shaven appearance is extremely common on ships and sea stations.<br />
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==Media==<br />
Public media in Konyang is a powerful industry, and as broad as it may seem, it is very tightly knit. Aside from galactic-wide reruns and broadcasts of other nation’s shows, little seems to stand out - except the audio broadcast and illustrated artistic avenues. These two are well-refined artistic giants compared to other forms of entertainment on the planet.<br />
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A huge portion of the planet’s political views and very “personality” are channeled through its larger studios, where many are found enthused to spread its culture galaxy-wide.<br />
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===Audio Broadcast===<br />
Radio, or more broadly the global net of wireless communication, is a huge industry in Konyang. Many IPCs have found harmless additions to their daily lives to be the standard headset and wearable radio kit, permitting any number of fast EAL communication planet-wide streamed directly into their receptors. While not particularly lucrative, the major broadcast stations have made quick work to monopolize their grip over this method of communication. Analog radio has also held a prominent position in people's routine, dating back to early colonial times. Most households maintain an analog radio set able to tune in to Konyang's many different stations that broadcast day and night on a planetary scale. Mariners especially make frequent use of the radio, with talk shows, news, and shipping forecasts keeping them company and up to date along their voyages in the open seas.<br />
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<br />
'''Matsumoto’s Talk and Walk'''<br />
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Meant for the on-the-go working IPC, this Encoded Audio Language bluespace broadcast is run by a particularly energetic “Matsumoto.” Though the true nature or even appearance of Matsumoto is unknown, they have constructed a massive following built from IPCs who obsessively strive to uphold their strict, rigid lifestyle. Talk and Walk states clear affiliation with multiple government and corporate organizations, particularly those with Hephaestus Industries. Matsumoto will often promote charitable foundations or corporate products found on Konyang, especially to those tuning in to their tourist-centric broadcast. When speaking in Sol Common, they take on a fast-paced and high-pitched masculine tone. They are frequently put on loudspeakers in popular tourist destinations, with recordings accompanying stylized eyeballs which track passerbys.<br />
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'''Great Blue Dot'''<br />
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Hidden somewhere in the depths of Konyang’s shallow seas is a moving, unseen broadcast station which has gone undetected since its first broadcast in 2430. It is known as the Great Blue Dot, attributed to what researchers believe to be its tremendous size and the color of its marker on sea-charts. While itself illegally broadcasts to every openly-receiving piece of hardware on the southern hemisphere of the planet, little can be gleaned of the actual broadcasts themselves. From incoherent gibberish of “swarms of wasps,” to “hives in the skies,” the outgoing material is poorly formed at best. Receiving these broadcasts is not illegal, contrarily, and the sheer number of watchful eyes bouncing back to the broadcast keeps its location perpetually hidden from local authorities. Search efforts for the source of the Great Blue Dot stopped in May of 2462, due to “excessive cost for little reward,” police officials say.<br />
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====Visual Animation====<br />
[[File:Konyang anime.png|thumb|Seasons 1-14 of BELIEVE!~, one of the flagship animations of Konyang entertainment industry. ]]<br />
Animated media is commonplace on Konyang, and chief among the many outlets that enhance its unique culture. Whereas hundreds, perhaps thousands of animated studios take up projects annually, very few make critical success. By far the most famous and successful studio, Konymation, remains a staple in everyday life, employing thousands throughout the planet in drawing, voicing and animating high budget movies and series of all kinds and genres. The industry, despite computer-aided assistance, heavily leans on IPC labor and organic oversight for its newly-animated creations. This makes it very costly, and few endeavors pay off. Some examples of those that succeeded are below.<br />
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<br />
'''Stormman'''<br />
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A very popular series created by Konymation, Stormman has been described as a staple animation by both human and IPC audiences. Aimed primarily at young adults, the action packed franchise features the masked protagonist, Stormman, harnessing the power of Konyang’s stormy and thunderous weather with his high-tech suit, battling crime and apocalyptic alien invaders alike, all while trying to lead a normal life. Eight seasons have been released so far, whereas merchandise of all sorts are widely prominent as well as lucrative. <br />
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<br />
'''Believe!~ (In the Time)'''<br />
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A hit animated series renowned for its choppy, quick action sequences led by a stoic heroine by the name of '''Marie,''' a time traveling Venusian shell IPC from the 2460’s. Targeted primarily at IPC audiences, it takes place in the pre-war “wild west” Frontier at around the early warp era. Being released in 2435, it has claimed fame as a “hit 30’s classic,” still being aired on prime broadcast stations globally in subtitled Sol Common. To organic viewers, much of the dialogue, tones or consistency is said to be lost in a muddle of incomprehensibly fast shoot-out scenes and plot twists that happen for split-seconds.<br />
<br />
====Comics====<br />
Spearheaded by Mujigae Publishing, the planet's comic sector has seen great successes that brought paper back into the mainstream. Comic books have a huge share of the market on Konyang, and is perhaps the largest industry of its kind to exist in any civilized world in the Orion Spur. Comic genres vary from children-oriented adventures, to gritty, graphic murder mysteries for adults, all of which may incorporate elements of fantasy and superheroes. Movie and animation adaptations of Mujigae's comics are also a common practice used to boost numbers, making readers able to see their favourite stories and characters on the big screen.<br />
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'''Inspector 404/Kyung-Sun'''<br />
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[[File:Konyang comic.png|thumb|The front cover for the latest edition of I404, "Under the Shadows," featuring Kyung-Sun with superintendent Hayashi in the background.]]<br />
Since its debut in the issue ''“Phantoms of Suwon,”'' the series simply referred to as I404 is the most popular comic in the Orion Spur, and Konyang’s most profitable media franchise. The series centers around the titular '''Inspector 404,''' a shell IPC who goes by the alias of Kyung-Sun, in a bleak and highly dystopian Konyanger cityscape. While the series itself starts upon a Suwon highrise, the character would go on to travel the world in its 67 current issues. Issue #67, known as “Under the Shadows,” revolves around the Kyung-Sun going up against the same police establishment he had been serving, pitting himself against corrupt police superintendent Hayashi.<br />
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'''The Corrupted'''<br />
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Written by former National Police detective Yu-Mi Han and originally published in 2464, The Corrupted is a successful yet controversial detective thriller set in Suwon which is regarded as a more grounded, realistic story than the competing Inspector 404. In first days of Konyang’s independence Detective Sergeant Dae-Jung Song and his assistant Detective Synthetic Duri-IU#21 (later Detective Duri Ryu) uncover a conspiracy by the Trinary Perfection to overthrow its government, turning the planet into a theocracy under a Trinary leader known as “The Patriarch.” Over the course of the series Song and Ryu discover the Trinary Perfection intends to infect synthetic citizens with a virus distributed through overloaders known as “go-sticks,” and the series culminates in a battle between the National Police — aided by 5-Cheung and the Sea Bandits — and Trinary Perfection in the streets of Suwon when their conspiracy is uncovered. Criticized by the Trinary Perfection as, “baseless propaganda,” — a comment put on the back of the series’ first omnibus — The Corrupted has become increasingly popular during Konyang’s ongoing viral outbreak. Han — herself an IPC residing in Suwon — has used its fame to bring attention to the ongoing crisis and encourage cooperation with law enforcement.<br />
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<br />
==Fashion==<br />
Being as moist as it is, one would expect the average Konyanger outfits to consist of drysuits and reflective outerwear, with raincoats and the like. This is the case in the majority of urban settings, whereas people in the villages take quite their own unique spin on their fashion choices.<br />
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Insulation from water is difficult to come by without some form of thermal insulation coming with it. This is clearly suboptimal, seeing as beating the heat is just as important as staying dry here. In their ingenuity, rural Konyangers have utilized a “miracle weave” of natural fibers acquired from the feathers of much avian wildlife planetside. Replicating the byproducts of these feathers has proven impossible, leaving only hunting to produce the necessities for the weave. Traditional villages take immense pride in their unique attire, many calling it the most important difference between them and the cities. Combining vibrant colours and utility, Konyanger fields are regularly dotted with farmers sporting colourful ponchos, robes and traditional Gat headwear. Most rural Konyanger “fashion” draws from this weave in some form - resulting in cool, waterproof, and sharp-looking outerwear resembling a poncho in most cases. More complex items such as jackets and legwear are quite expensive and marketed as luxury items for the elite, with the weave still in quite high demand.<br />
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Urban fashion on the other hand is rather detached from the realities of that of the villages. The natural, feather based fabrics are rarely found amongst the denizens of the large cities, while those who do own them are quickly singled out as either people from the countryside, or individuals of a higher class. Rainy weather still being the primary issue, city dwellers have adopted a different stance, preferring clothes of industrial origin.<br />
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In combination with normal everyday clothing items, these Konyangers have adopted a heavy use of water resistant plastics. Stemming from the first years of settlement on the planet, plastic and translucent raincoats were slowly shaped into all sorts of jackets, coats and pants, creating a more comfortable and utilitarian approach to keeping clothes dry. Slowly developing into a fashion sense, and with research on more flexible materials, plastic-based attire has culminated into being the norm. LED lights, translucency and water resistance are the staples of this trend, the youth and clothes designers taking it a step further, with holographic microprojectors being woven and fluorescent substances infused into the material, creating quite the cutting edge in fashion.<br />
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==Sports==<br />
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Sports have been a pastime of countless Konyangers since the planet's colonization, with many of the sports now enjoyed being brought from Earth during its initial founding, often with little to no adaptation. <br />
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Characteristic of the planet's stance towards synthetics, most sports have both IPC and human leagues. Synthetic sports originally started out as a gimmick during the initial development of IPCs - a publicity stunt and way for up-and-coming designers to prove the dexterity of new chassis and responsiveness of new brains. After a friendly challenge between a Zeng-Hu and Terraneus design team during the early days of synthetic development, IPC sports became a common facet of Konyanger life, with leagues seeing the opportunity to create matches that pushed the games to their limits and while celebrating the planet's accomplishments. Presently, a major debate rocking most IPC sports leagues is the presence of self-modification, with proponents arguing that . <br />
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IPCs themselves <br />
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Despite repeated efforts by government ministries to create a new national sport to serve as another symbol of Konyang, ranging from football in freshwater swamps to boat racing among mariners, and more, none of these attempts have managed to surpass the universal acclaim and popularity of old Earth sports.<br />
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===Baseball===<br />
Baseball is unofficially regarded as the national sport of the Republic of Konyang, having been brought to the planet by its founding colonists and remained a popular sport to date. The Konyang League, divided into the major and minor leagues, is the main baseball league in the planet, with organic and synthetic sections for both. Organic Konyangers still play in Solarian baseball leagues, even after secession, but synthetic teams play in the Coalition’s leagues. Both organic and synthetic Konyangers are regarded as some of the best baseball players in the modern Spur, and a sufficiently talented player can find themselves playing abroad and earning a significant amount of money for doing so.<br />
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''''Konyang Major League''''<br />
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The Konyanger Major League is dominated by teams from the planet’s major cities such as Suwon and New Hong Kong, with the most prominent players of these teams becoming celebrities in their own right. The major teams of Konyang bring in billions of credits and are vital parts of their cities, with local notables vying to own one and city officials fighting to have stadiums built in their districts. Organized crime groups, such as 5-Cheung and the Benevolent Guild, are known to take their cuts too, “helping” businesses secure contracts for the teams and their stadiums, then funneling their cut of the money back into their illicit operations.<br />
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One of the only synthetic-exclusive sports leagues in the modern Spur, the Konyang Major League (synthetic) falls under a unique series of rules. Synthetics must, by league rules, be free and have at least Konyang residency, and most members come from Konyang. Synthetics are allowed to self-modify but must, per league rules, not use “performance enhancing” augments such as ballistic computers or leg actuators. One exception is for after-market heat-sinks used by shells, who would otherwise suffer from heat circulation issues rendering them unable to play. These rules were recently tested by Suwon Sea Bandit team captain Iseul-52, a shell IPC who replaced her legs with Zeng-Hu frame equivalents. After a two month investigation it was deemed an illegal modification. Teams can place any synthetic into any position, but lighter frames — baselines, Zeng-Hu frames, and so on — tend to be outfielders, with heavier units such as industrials serving as pitchers and basemen. Shells are often the “face” of the teams, serving as team captains and floating between the other rules. Only the Boryeong Shelfers go against this shells-as-captains trend, with G2 industrial Myung “Sonny” Sun serving as their team captain.<br />
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''''Konyang Major League Teams''''<br />
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'''Suwon Sea Bandits'''<br />
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Based on Konyang’s capital and colored black, gold, and white, the Sea Bandits a recently ascendant team after a long slump of losses during the mid-25th century, having recently won the 2465 Konyang Series and the coveted Jeweler Cup for both the organic and synthetic leagues — a first for any team. Most Bandits are locals from Suwon, with few originating from other cities and only one — human team shortstop William “Wok” Fitzroy, originally from Callisto — coming from off-world, and this policy of local recruitment has kept the Bandits a favorite in Suwon even during their long period of losses. The team has built more goodwill by holding regular charity games after the rampancy crisis, donating the profits to Suwon’s recovery. Their name comes from Konyang’s sea bandits — pirates that operate out of its remote islands — and has long refused to change its name for any reason. The Bandits winning the ‘66 Series has been viewed by many in Konyang’s capital as a sign their city is bouncing back after the rampancy crisis, and has made them more popular in their hometown than ever. Their mascot is Moon the Marauder, a stylized pirate who claims to be the most infamous bandit on Konyang and is in constant search of more treasure. Moon has a rivalry with the Cloudbursts’ mascot, Lieutenant Commander Yamada, and has sworn to evade justice for as long as possible. Whether Moon escapes Yamada depends on if the Sea Bandits beat the Cloudbursts. If they do, the Marauder gets away from his pursuer — but Yamada always manages to pick up the trail before the next season.<br />
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The human Bandits are led by team captain Kwang-Sun “Cap’n K” Nae. Captain Nae is a larger-than-life figure who typically attends press conferences and events wearing a costume pirate hat taken from the team’s mascot and speaking in what the team manager identifies as, “a piratical accent.” His co-captain for the synthetic team is Iseul-52, a shell IPCand pitcher who recently drew controversy by replacing her legs with Zeng-Hu frame equivalents. Eventually deemed an illegal modification by the league, her comments that she’d do, “anything to win,” make her a controversial figure now — even with her original legs reinstalled. Iseul has a very public rivalry with Shelfers team captain Myung “Sonny” Sun, having pitched a perfect no hitter against the G2 in 2466 and brought his Jeweler Cup dreams to an end. Captains Nae and Iseul have a good working relationship and often appear in joint promotions, with both appearing in several government-produced PSAs during and after the rampancy crisis.<br />
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'''Aoyama Roboticists'''<br />
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Arguably the best-funded team in the league, the Aoyama Roboticists’ colors are gold and green: the same as their sponsors, Einstein Engines. The Roboticists have a larger number of off-world fans than any other team on Konyang and are frequently watched by Einstein employees, who view them as “their team.” Well-funded and well-trained, most human Roboticists come from outside Aoyama and even offworld, with their synthetic team requiring a prospective member to demonstrate they were made by Einstein — making them the only majority-shell team in the league. As a result, while the human Roboticists have consistently been excellent — making it all the way to the Konyang Series game in ‘65 only to lose to the Sea Bandits — the synthetic Roboticists have consistently struggled compared to other teams made of a more diverse synthetic roster. They are sometimes painted as a villain by other teams, and the Roboticists play into these rivalries — often their away games draw more tickets to the home team’s stadium than any other game. Their mascot is a stylized Albert Einstein wearing an Einstein Engines labcoat.<br />
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The human Roboticists are led by the only non-Konyanger captain in the major league, Mercuryian Floyd “Howie” Howell. Captain Howell is a competent, if somewhat boring, man who is a gifted coordinator. Both of his parents, and all of his siblings, work for Einstein, and he often throws the ceremonial first pitch of Einstein-run employee team-building baseball games in Aoyama. His organic counterpart is Richard the Magnificent, a dashing-looking shell designed to resemble a Callistean known for talking in an outlandish Earther accent. Richard is popular despite his team’s lack of success and often makes appearances on talk shows and podcasts. His likeness has even been featured as a background character in Believe!~ (In the Time), and Richard himself is rumored to lend his voice to unvoiced animals in the show, instead making noises. He has never officially confirmed this.<br />
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'''Boryeong Shelfers'''<br />
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Colored green, white, and red, the Boryeong Shelfers are a mid-ranked team currently stuck in something of a rut in the major leagues, having last won the Jeweler Cup in 2442 — over twenty years ago! Shelfers — like the animal they’re named after — come from across Konyang, but most originate in the greater Boryeong Prefecture and its major cities, such as New Busan. The Shelfers are owned by Go-Go Gwok (formerly known as Gwok-0783), the CEO of Gwok Group, and the team is featured in many Gwok promotions, with players appearing in everything from radio ads to TV commercials to packaging. Gwok herself has injected significant funding into the team and is rumored to be working on ensuring they capture the Jeweler Cup by 2470 — something that has been growing more realistic, with the Shelfers consistently finishing higher in the Major Leagues each year. Their mascot is a Shelfer wearing a team jersey who they claimed grew legs (and arms) out of his sheer desire to see the team play.<br />
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The human Shelfers are captained by Hee-Young “Hehe” Ryuk, a daughter of two Boryeong hydroponics workers who’s become a local hero in the Prefecture for her down-to-earth nature and refusal to accept contracts for any other team. Her nickname comes from Ryuk’s habit of pranking her team and others, such as an incident where she replaced random practice balls with identical copies filled with confetti and designed to break open after hitting a bat. Ryuk has a well-known dislike of Gamblers human captain Jin-Sang Gwak, a man she views as a criminal first and a player second. Standing opposite her on the synthetic Shelfers is Captain Myung “Sonny” Sun, a G2 industrial and former Gwok Corp worker. Sonny is one of the tallest players in the League and often regarded as its best power hitter, having scored more homeruns than any other synthetic player. Captain Iseul of the Sea Bandits has a very public rivalry with Sonny, having struck the G2 out several times — most recently in 2466, when she brought the Shelfers’ Jeweler Cup dreams to an end. Sonny, for his part, is one of the few players to hit a homer on one of Iseul’s pitches every time during a game, last doing so in 2465. Breaking from the rivalry in a show of support after the rampancy crisis, Manny signed and sold the bat he used to hit every one of Iseul’s pitches at auction and donated the proceeds to Suwon’s recovery fund.<br />
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'''Ganzaodeng Gamblers'''<br />
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Colored purple, black, and white, the Ganzaodeng Gamblers call back to their city’s days as a boomtown during the robotics boom, when gambling halls were on almost every corner. Gamblers come from across Konyang, and the human team has a significant minority of players from New Hai Phong. Fittingly for their name, their performance has been wildly inconsistent: over the past ten years they’ve won the Jeweler Cup (in 2452), placed lowest overall (2455), and came in second overall twice (2449, 2553). Fans of the team refer to this as “Gambler odds” and Ganzaodeng has many legal and semi-legal sports betting businesses — many associated with organized crime — based around betting how well the Gamblers will place this season. Hai Phongese organized crime has long been rumored to be involved in betting around the Gamblers, but the National Police have never discovered formal evidence of such. The mascot of the Gamblers is a deck of cards wearing the team’s jersey called the Ganzaodeng Ace as the deck is said to contain just aces.<br />
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The human Gamblers are captained by Jin-Sang Gwak, one of the league’s best shortstops and a man long accused of being involved in game fixing — though nothing has ever been proven. Gwak maintains a close relationship with New Hai Phong, where he plays during the offseason, and is viewed by many on the team as a bridge between its Konyanger and Haiphongese players. His counterpart on the synthetic team is Youngsoo “Grenadier” Baek, a KAF veteran known for his aggressive pitching style who missed the 2465 season due to volunteering for military service during the rampancy crisis. Captains Gwak and Baek, despite their similar surnames, do not get along. Where Gwak is lackadaisical and flirts with corruption, Baek is disciplined — even draconian — and held as incorruptible. What will happen as the captains continue to be at odds is any player’s guess, but it certainly does benefit Ganzaodeng’s betting industry.<br />
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'''New Hong Kong Cloudbursts'''<br />
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Colored red, orange, and grey, the Cloudbursts represent New Hong Kong and derive their name from the city’s infamously poor weather. The performance divide between the human and synthetic teams is stark: while the human cloudbursts are regarded as the worst team in the major leagues, having never won a Jeweler Cup, the synthetic Cloudbursts are regarded as one of the best teams in their league, having most recently won the cup in 2465 in a close game against the Sea Bandits. This division has been called, by some sports reporters, the result of New Hong Kong having a majority synthetic population, and the prefecture’s bad weather making it difficult to draw players in for its human team. The mascot of the Cloudbursts is Lieutenant Commander Yamada, a stylized Konyang Aerospace Forces — formerly Solarian Navy — officer who has a rivalry with the Sea Bandits’ Moon the Marauder, with Yanada publicly swearing he’ll chase down the brigand until the end of time. Whether Yamada catches Moon depends on if the Cloudbursts win their game against the Sea Bandits — but the Marauder always manages to slip from his prison before the next season starts.<br />
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The beleaguered human Cloudbursts are led by Captain Min-Jee “Minty” Seong, the oldest team captain in the league and a veteran pitcher. The longest-serving member of the Cloudbursts, Seong is expected to retire by the end of the decade — leaving her team in even more uncertain circumstances. As a captain she has done what she can to make the Cloudbursts into a winning team, but has yet to win the Jeweler Cup — the highest she’s had them place is third overall. Her counterpart on the synthetic team is Jinjing “Bandit” Wu, a catcher and former Solarian Navy IPC who became a Konyanger when her destroyer chose to stay and fight for Konyang rather than defecting to a warlord state. Widely known as a patriotic Konyanger, Wu is one of the few players to wear a hachimaki on the field. Off of it, she has long been an advocate for the rights of IPC refugees fleeing unrest or oppression elsewhere in the Spur.<br />
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'''Ushishir Yōkai'''<br />
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Colored white, purple, and red, the Ushishir Yōkai (stylized Yokai abroad) hail from Konyang’s least populated prefecture but punch well above their population, having recently won the hunan Jeweler Cup in 2461 and the synthetic Jeweler Cup in 2463 — the first team to ever win the series. Both the human and synthetic Yõkai are considered to be competent and competitive teams but had a bad year in the ‘66 season, with an early season injury having put team captain Aki Miura out of commission and the synthetic team losing to the Shelfers in the 9th inning in one of the closest games of the year. As a small city in a small prefecture, the Yōkai’s human team recruits many players from across the Coalition and maintains only a slim majority of Konyangers. The Yōkai’s foreign players have never attracted the ire of their counterparts in the Roboticists, potentially due to most coming from the Coalition and the team’s lack of a corporate sponsor — instead being owned and operated by local businessman Takeshi Furukawa, CEO of Furukawa Footwear — a midlevel corporation whose products can be found in stores across Konyang.<br />
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The human Yōkai are captained by Aki “Mickey” Miura, freshly returned from a nearly career-ending injury to his leg in the ‘66 series. Captain Miura is a gregarious and friendly man known for his distinctive pencil mustache and slightly grey hair, being only a year younger than Cloudbursts captain Min-Jee Seong. A power hitter, he is famous for his ability to call a shot and make it a homerun — and holds the current record for homers in the major league. Miura has appeared in anti-crime TV and radio spots with Shelfers captain Hee-Young Ryuk, and advocates for sports as an alternative to gang allegiance for youth — efforts that have led to the National Police giving him the honorary rank of inspector. His counterpart on the synthetic team is Captain Kazuki “Kaz” Oshita, a pitcher and the first synthetic to lead his team to victory in the major leagues. Captain Oshita is known to visit a shrine before every game he plays in to “debug” himself before he throws the first pitch, and was censured by the Konyang League for spreading false information on Chirper about purity seals preventing rampancy infection during the crisis. His comments nearly caused a brawl between the Yōkai and Sea Bandits during the ‘66 game between the teams — informally known as the “Rampancy Game” due to taking place right after the crisis’ end.<br />
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{{Navbox Konyang}}</div>The Strykerhttps://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=User:The_Stryker/Sandbox&diff=35780User:The Stryker/Sandbox2025-05-04T23:45:34Z<p>The Stryker: </p>
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{{Navbox Human Lore}}<br />
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==Demographics==<br />
Konyang’s ethnic mix up is far less diverse than other Human planets’, resulting in a strongly homogenous population with a significant expatriate minority. Since the beginning, Konyang's colonists were made up almost entirely of ethnic Koreans, Japanese and Chinese, with any other Alliance nationalities representing a tiny fraction of it. With a reduced enticement from immigration due to the planet's remoteness and lack of any significant development, the situation stayed more or less the same, until Konyang's Robotics Boom, which catapulted the colony to one of great interest. Millions of foreign workers, scientists and corporate employees flocked to the planet to participate and share in its newly found fortune, creating expatriate communities of their own and injecting much-desired capital to fuel the rapid development of the economy. Such was the impact of the migration that the foreigners outnumbered the native Japanese Konyangers of Aoyama, making the city known to the wider world as Point Verdant, after the name of the local Terraneus Diagnostics facility which was home to the birth of the positronic brain.<br />
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Since then however, the return of normality after the twilight of the Boom led to the majority of foreigners leaving; the prime draw of positronic AI had spread away from Konyang and into the rest of the Alliance. The expatriates thus abandoned Konyang just as fast as they had arrived, leaving behind significant economic development and derelict industrial zones alike. While the percentage of foreigners on Konyang is now less than 2% of the total population, their numbers would soon be replaced by a rapidly rising IPC community. Presently, while virtually all citizens identify as Konyanger nationals, heritage remains a part of people's identity, as reflected in their names, the local dialect, religion and customs, even with a lot of fusions between the three cultural groups. The prefectures of Suwon and Boryeong are primarily of Korean heritage while Aoyama boasts of a Japanese heritage. New Hong Kong has always been a stronghold of a Chinese and Cantonese majority, with Ganzaodeng following last as the least populous prefecture on Konyang, with a heavy mixup of Chinese and foreigner communities. IPCs are present in all urban centers and rural areas, with most of them residing in New Hong Kong, followed by Aoyama.<br />
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==Linguistics==<br />
Konyang's Earther heritage is vibrant and evident in the customs and languages that people speak. In every city, town and village, one will come across the local language being written and spoken alongside the planet's version of Sol Common, a practice that has become standard in a country that pursues equality between its constituent ethnicities and their unification under a common Konyanger identity. Over 70% of Konyangers are bilingual, having a grasp of their original Earther language. Many families especially in the countryside speak their regional language at home, leading to new generations perpetuating the practice and even preferring it to Sol Common. Prefectural schools also offer them as optional courses, with deeper learning being available in the form of local languages institutes and prefectural universities.<br />
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'''Konyang Solarian Common'''<br />
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The Konyang Solarian Common, also known as Konyang Common, is the official language of the state, spoken by virtually everyone on the planet and considered the standard language for everyday life. It is a dialect of Solarian Common, with the two having mutual intelligibility to a substantial level. Their differences lie mainly in the vocabulary, with Konyang Common replacing many words of descent foreign to the East Asia region of Earth, while staying more or less grammatically similar. Another significant difference is the complete absence of the Latin script in written Konyang Common, with solely the simplified Han system being in use. While this makes the language able to be spoken by Solarians, many find it difficult to read and write if they do not possess knowledge of the Han script. Konyang Common is an obligatory subject taught in every school, and every IPC citizen activated in the country receives it as a pre-programmed language datapack. While many families are bilingual, there are those that can only communicate in Common, especially in Suwon and the other melting-pot urban centers. The similar origin to the regional languages however, guarantees a certain level of mutual intelligibility. Konyang Common is also the language in exclusive use by the military.<br />
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'''Hangugeo'''<br />
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Hangugeo is the second most spoken language with its own script, directly descended from the Earther Korean language. It is spoken by about one third of the country and is more prevalent in Suwon, Boryeong and Point Verdant. Hangugeo can be taught in schools as an optional course in virtually all prefectures, though many children learn it from home at an early age. Many villages in Suwon and Boryeong only communicate with Hangugeo, which is also the language of countless rituals, festivals and religious functions in these lands. One can observe the prevalence of this language in Suwon during the night, with some roads being neon-lit with signage exclusively in Hangugego. Official government buildings in the two prefectures also feature both Common and Hangugeo, as do traffic signs, instruction books, local holovision channels, and more.<br />
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'''Nihongo'''<br />
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Nihongo is a language with its own script, descended from the Japanese language of Earth. Brought to Konyang by the settlers originating from the Japanese islands, it is spoken primarily in Aoyama and Suwon, though Nihongo speaking communities can be found all over Konyang. It features prominently on official signage all over Aoyama and the islands within that prefecture, but is otherwise not encountered in the rest of Konyang as greatly as Hangugeo. Nihongo also dominates every aspect of the Shinto religion, and many pieces of culture such as poems and books are written in the language, adorning the national libraries of the state. A strongmovement of writers and artists in Aoyama has recently become the backbone of an effort to spead the use of Nihongo across the country, leading to a resurgence of interest in the cities aimed at boosting the literacy of Konyangers of Japanese heritage in the language.<br />
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'''Hanyu'''<br />
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Hanyu is a language sharing the Han script and many similarities with Konyanger Common, and is as such the easiest to understand for many Konyangers. Spoken and seen primarily in New Hong Kong and Ganzaodeng, Hanyu is the language most connected in the minds of many to the planet's blue-collar industrial workforce, with tidbits of it always able to be heard in every hydroelectric dam, sea wall and shipyard in the New Hong Kong prefecture. Used alongside it by Konyangers of South Chinese descent is a unique dialect and standalone language known as '''Gwondungwa''', spoken widely in many parts of New Hong Kong such as New Kowloon. Outside New Hong Kong, Hanyu can sometimes be followed by an unfortunate reputation; the language's connection to the Triad clans of the Benevolent Guild is something that many Chinese Konyangers are regretful of, with many PR campaigns throughout the prefecture's time having been aimed at rehabilitating the image of Hanyu and Gwondungwa in the eyes of public opinion.<br />
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'''Encoded Audio Language'''<br />
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Encoded Audio Language is a most widely spoken language, owing to the planet’s nearly positronic inhabitants, all of which are programmed by default to speak it. It is not a language that the human ear can comprehend, appearing as various pitches of white noise, accompanied by beeping sounds that only a machine can make. It has no script, instead relying on machine-readable mediums such as linear and matrix barcodes. Its compact form and IPC-friendly Konyanger culture makes it by far the most prevalent language in signage, with hundreds of words able to be conveyed instantaneously to IPC shoppers, workers, home media consumers and more with a single line of barcode. It is by law attached to all important official notices and signage, alongside Konyang Common, which IPCs are also taught to speak.<br />
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'''Others'''<br />
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Tradeband is a language of Solarian origin with its own Latin script. It appears only sporadically in exclusively expatriate communities in Point Verdant and Ganzaodeng. Its foreign nature and Romance sounds are steadily turning it into a language of prestige and luxury amongst the higher circles, with Tradeband speakers believing they possess a grade of richness and exoticism over their peers. For many Konyangers, being able to communicate in Tradeband brings up an image of high-end deals with foreign Solarian businessmen, fine Idris suits and expensive watches.<br />
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Freespeak is a language brought to Konyang through its constant dealings with the nearby Coalition of Colonies, the then Frontier Alliance. Despite its foreign origins, it has grown into a language of trade, with many Konyanger merchants being forced to learn it for their dealings with neighboring worlds. It is offered in schools as an optional language course, with many families now encouraging their children to learn Freespeak in the face of the recent accession into the Coalition. Freespeak is also a language that many in the pro-Solarian political circles steer clear of, regarding it as a tongue spoken by traitors and colonists whose ties to the Alliance are long lost.<br />
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Tau Ceti Basic is a language of Solarian origin that while previously confined in the expatriate and corporate circles, it has seen a significant rise in popularity within Konyanger society in the last 2 years or so, owing to an increase in dealings with Tau Ceti and its megacorporations. Many young people are particularly exposed to Bieselite media, making them inclined to adopt a conversational skill in the admittedly easy to learn Basic. The language is also connected to the vast influence of megacorporations that exist outside of Konyang, and many have to learn it if they wish to find employment within Nanotrasen and the SCC.<br />
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==Religion and Holidays==<br />
[[File:Konyangreligion.png|400px|right]]<br />
The Republic of Konyang is a secular state with no official religion. With around 72% of the population professing no faith, it nonetheless maintains strong communities of various religions carried over from the colonists’ home countries. The urban areas are the most irreligious compared to the rural towns and villages, the people of which are regarded as more spiritual in general. While shrines and temples do exist in most cities, it is the countryside where one can see them dotted out in the jungles and mountain ranges, maintained by the local communities.<br />
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Despite the predominant atheism or agnosticism in Konyanger society, religious traditions remain a significant part of the national culture. Government mandated public holidays often fall on the same days as major religious holidays, cabinet members and local officials regularly pay visits at major shrines, while nominally religious festivals have become cultural staples in all five prefectural capitals, attracting thousands every year. Ancient traditional dress that was once lost to the adoption of streetwear and business attire, has been revived and preserved through direct connection with certain faiths. It is then frequently worn and enjoyed by millions during these days, ensuring the original cultures’ continuation while making artisans and craftsmen in towns and villages thrive.<br />
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'''Folk Religions'''<br />
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A blanket term for the myriad of local faiths, ranging from or incorporating elements of shamanism, polytheism and animism, folk religions are most frequently found in settlements outside urban centers. There is no semblance of organization, with each community usually having their own deities and customs, which usually share elements with the faiths of nearby villages or the wider area. They are heavily influenced by the settlers’ original ethnicities, becoming vastly different in terms of language, dress and traditions depending on the Hangukin, Nihonjin and Zhongguorin origins. During the nearly 150 years of Konyang’s settlement, many new distinctly Konyanger folk religions have sprung up, mostly centered around the rich natural environment or fauna. Positronics are usually welcome to partake if they wish, with a few IPCs known to have become shamans and priests in their local communities. Folk festivals are usually organized between villages and nearby towns in tandem with the secular authorities, with virtually every area enjoying some sort of regional celebration.<br />
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'''Shinto'''<br />
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A religion of exclusively Japanese origin, Shinto is a nonetheless disorganized religion revolving around the existence of kami - minor and major deities connected with the natural world and various aspects of daily life. Initially mostly encountered in the Aoyama prefecture, Shinto practitioners can today be found everywhere, the religion having been adopted by many Konyangers all over the globe. Ever since the arrival on the planet, many new kami have been created or fused with old ones, giving Konyanger Shintoism a distinct identity. A central aspect of Shinto are shrines dedicated to kamis as a place where they can be venerated. Shrines are structures which can vary greatly in their size and architecture, and are usually maintained by the temple’s shrine maidens. Many Konyanger households have also adopted their own house altars, called kamidana, for the enshrining of kami. This has also progressed into a secular tradition as well, with many kamidana being present in a house to grant a family prosperity and good luck. Torii gates are also another cultural icon of Konyang and the Aoyama province in particular, where their presence marks the grounds of a shrine. They can be found commonly in the countryside, with many remaining hidden in jungles and overtaken by moss.<br />
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'''Buddhism'''<br />
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Another blanket term for the many sects of Buddhist teachings originating from East Asia, Buddhist religious elements can be found throughout Konyang in households of all origins. Based on tenets brought to the planet since its colonization, it is most famous on Konyang for the few of its monasteries present in the mountain ranges, as well as its rich history and traditions that have heavy influences in Shinto and many of the folk religions. Buddhist monastic communities are considered a significant part of Konyager heritage that attract hundreds of thousands of visitors every year, with specially designated monasteries allowed to operate freely on land donated by the prefecture.<br />
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'''Chondo'''<br />
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A peasant religion at its core, Chondoism is geographically limited to the coastal areas of Boryeong and Suwon, having a strong association with the piratical sea bandit factions and the downtrodden villages. Having entered a period of transformation and rebirth, it revolves around teachings of social equality under a God, challenging the establishment and building a bond between the rural peasantry for the improvement of their situation. Described more as a movement or political expression rather than a religion, Chondoism doesn’t possess any meaningful formal organization, festivals or temples, with many people mixing up Chondo teachings in the folk religions they actually practice. Due to its association with the sea bandits, practitioners of Chondo are looked on with suspicion by both the public and the state.<br />
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'''Trinary Perfection'''<br />
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The Trinary Perfection is the newest and an almost exclusively positronic religion with a few human followers, preaching the divinity of synthetic life and its eventual ascension with the help of organics for a better future. It is primarily located in Aoyama, with the nearby drone vaults considered a holy place and popular Trinarist pilgrimage destination. It is one of the few formally organized religions, and is somewhat unpopular with the general public and many secular IPCs, due to the perceived teachings of superiority of synthetics over humans. This unpopularity has sometimes gotten out of hand, with protests and violence against Trinary clerics and followers, requiring a substantial police presence around the Trinarist cathedral and other places of worship.<br />
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The most notable locations for the Trinary Perfection on the planet are the '''Cathedral of the First Positronic''' and '''Vault Provenance'''. The Cathedral of the First Positronic is a holy site that was built by repurposing a nearby vault. Meanwhile Vault Provenance, a name given by the Trinary Perfection clergy, was the vault which held the drones that led to the development of the first positronic brain. Tens of thousands of the Perfection’s faithful make pilgrimages to both sites, and the money these pilgrims inject into Konyang’s economy has been cited as another reason as to why the planet tolerates its presence. Trinary clergy are often educated on Konyang, and many of the highest-ranking officials in the faith were built on the planet.<br />
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'''Other'''<br />
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Christianity, Islam and other religions and religious movements have found a home in Konyang, having been brought over by both the original colonists as well as the immigrants during the Robotics Boom. These communities have their own temples, clerics and followers in the major cities, being allowed to practice freely under Konyang's tolerant legislation. Out of them, Christianity is the most popular with the native Konyangers, as some ethnic Koreans have professed the Christian faith since their arrival. All are however largely regarded as "foreign" by the vast majority of the population, who treat them with either indifference or benign curiosity.<br />
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Some notable holidays and festivals include:<br />
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'''Qixian New Year: January 15th'''<br />
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Adopted directly by all three communities from their original shared tradition, the Konyanger Qixian New Year is the most significant and widely celebrated day on the planet’s religious and secular calendar. Taking place yearly on the 15th of January, the date was standardized early on by the government to resolve disputes between the planet’s religions and religious sects that used their own versions of the Lunar and Qixian calendars. Hydrologically, it marks the beginning of the High Tides.<br />
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Fireworks are extensively used to mark the occasion at midnight, with people taking to the streets in major cities, towns and villages for the New Year Parade. The parade itself is the central and grandest spectacle of the night, and almost every organized institution in Konyang, from the military to the universities, takes part with dedicated parade teams. The paraders don traditional outfits and carry around enormous and overly decorated sculptures of animals or effigies of deities made of metal, wood or paper. Friendly rivalry is a strong element of the parade, with the participants trying to outdo each other in the creativity, amount and craftsmanship of their icon by grabbing the attention of the crowds. Alcohol, games and street candy are also major parts of the festivities, which reserve entire city blocks for the plethora of shop stands that are put up for the night, as well as the parade itself. In Suwon, it is tradition for the Prime Minister to attend from the veranda of Government House, underneath which the parade always goes through. A remnant from colonial times, this was a prime opportunity for the parade goers to tastefully voice their approval or discontent for the government through subtle signs on the sculptures, chants or dance moves as they passed under the balcony, though it’s not rare for this to get out of hand in times of economic strain and hardship.<br />
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For the religious aspect of the holiday, most practitioners start preparing from Qixian New Year’s Eve, with offerings or local religious celebrations and small festivals, mostly in the rural areas. Exchange of gifts is also widespread and varies from area to area, depending on the local culture and predominant religion. Dried moss is a particularly commonplace gift in the Suwon and Boryeong prefectures, meant to give the other person courage to last until the dry season. For most people however, the credit-filled red or white envelope never ceases to be a New Year’s classic, expected by all Konyanger children.<br />
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==Konyanger Culture==<br />
Having settled on the planet some two hundred years ago, the people of Konyang have brought with them the societal norms, traditions and culture of their original lands from Earth's East Asia region. While migrant waves during the country's Robotics Boom introduced a myriad of new and different communities in the cities, these have had little impact on Konyanger society at large, which has been shaped by its original ethnicities' backgrounds, its colonial history, and the most recent embrace of IPCs into daily life. Said synthetics now make up a large percentage of the population, adding their own uniqueness and enhancing Konyang's cultural field, despite being brought up to follow the norms established by their human compatriots. By and large, the most fundamental aspects of being a Konyanger are followed in every region of the planet, though each national prefecture has developed its own peculiarities, from local cuisine and fashion, to religion and outlook on life. <br />
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===The Three Values===<br />
Konyangers are raised to silently follow some core values, infused into them by both their families and the wider society around them. They are not named, nor are they set in stone or officially taught. Scholars however have grouped them in the three main categories of '''Harmony''', '''Reciprocity''', and '''Face''', around which most values revolve.<br />
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'''Harmony''' regards how a person fits in with their environment, conforming with a strict social establishment and expectations. It is a key aspect everywhere, and is how Konyangers perceive a functioning and well organised society. Standing out is permitted within boundaries, with contemporary fads being accepted as just that, and not something that is allowed to disrupt the established order and traditions of the wider public. In the cities, children are expected to follow certain predetermined paths, get a stable career and provide for their parents later in life. Questioning rules is something an adult will do with great difficulty and consideration, while silently enduring a situation is viewed as a sign of great virtue and patience. A proper Konyanger is always expected to be courteous towards strangers and the elders, as well as maintain a level of awareness of the public mood and their surroundings. Talking above a whisper on a packed city bus or train for example, would be considered rather awkward, or even rude, by the rest of the passengers. This emphasis on social harmony on Konyang can go to lengths that people from other countries may find weird; never will a Konyanger think of cutting in line as they stand in a queue, nor will it cross their mind to cross a road in the city without going through the crosswalk or under a red light, even in light traffic. Asking for a raise is considered taboo, and in many cases workers will find their careers reaching a ceiling due to the fallout of transfering to a different company. Penalties for breaking the social harmony are not immediately apparent to an outsider, since complaining of one's behavior and creating a scene is not something that most Konyangers will find easy to do, nor will the police be called in most cases unless the act is egregious or criminal. For a person living there however, it is something that becomes apparent for both themselves and their close ones. Especially in more tight knit communities in the towns and villages of the countryside, ostracization is a real threat a person's social environment can use against them to prevent them from standing out.<br />
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'''Reciprocity''' is a concept not dissimilar to the sense of community that many other colonial nations experienced during their founding days, still persisting in daily life on Konyang. It is the sense that people have a duty to assist eachother, even if they are unacquainted. This is extremely prevalent in the rural areas, where the smaller populations create a more personal dimension between the inhabitants of the village. Trading for goods and services between neighbors and families is a very common thing both there and in the cities, stemming directly from the cultural phenomenon of reciprocity. On Konyang, when someone offers help, it is only proper for you to offer something in return at some point in the future. This may range from something simple such as hand-me-down clothes or groceries, to favors or even sums of money. Everyone, no matter their situation, is expected to participate in this process according to their means; During certain holidays or festivities, families keep track of others that they need to reciprocate to, often leading to huge dinners with entire city blocks or the whole village coming to celebrate together.<br />
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'''Face''' is a broad and hard to translate culmination of all the above virtues, critical to the fabric of society. It can be considered to be the "social capital" for a Konyanger and their family, determined by the set of appearances and behaviors they use to interact with the world. As long as a person progresses according to societal rules, keeping up with the ideals of harmony and reciprocity, they are said to have "face". This is an important concept applying to all rungs of society, as average individuals and the biggest Konyanger conglomerates alike strive to maintain their level of dignity and honor. Without it one is considered to live in disgrace, affecting both themselves and anyone whom they might associate with. A person who has suffered a loss of face may, for example, be excluded from social events, be avoided on the street or even lose their job on account of strict Konyanger corporate ethics codes. Families tend hide the more "shameful" secrets in fear that they might be discovered, particularly in the countryside, and disgraced family members are often not spoken of again until their face is sufficiently rehabilitated. Public functionaries and well-known figures are also extremely considerate of their image, with scandals in both government and the corporate world often leading to scapegoating and ceremonial dismissal of those deemed at fault. It is not uncommon for low-level business officials to resign in disgrace on live TV, begging the public's forgiveness and taking the blame so that their company can save face.<br />
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The social pressure upon Konyangers has always been enormous compared to other developed planets across the Spur, though more and more young people rise to question and reject the status quo. Counterculture movements have always been prevalent in the cities, especially amongst the student movements both in the present day and during colonial times. Resistance to what they call an oppressive social regime has led to the emergence of new genres of music, fashion and art, with the youth pioneering ever more novel and often provocative forms of self expression. While older generations and society at large may consider them "fads" and "phases" that the youth will eventually "grow up" from, it is largely from these culture movements that things such as IPC rights rose from to become widespread and staple elements of Konyang.<br />
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===Work Culture===<br />
White collar employment is a major part of millions of Konyangers' lives, more so than people from other countries. Working for a local company is something a lot more intricate than how it is abroad, transcending the personal dimension one might have about their pay and career. For a Konyanger conglomerate, employment is a bond between the employer and the employee, from which both rights and responsibilities are born. Loyalty to the workplace plays a great role in people's lives, with employees expected to remain in their position for even their entire careers. Raises, promotions and benefits are handed out primarily based on time served rather than merit, rewarding the quiet and dedicated office worker. Knowing your place in the chain is very important in the office, as is observing decorum and the usually strict dress and ethics codes put down by the company. Unspoken rules dominate these environments, creating their own microcosm that reflects and accentuates the three values of Konyanger culture. It is custom that management treat their employees as part of an extended family; Konyanger corporations and firms have some of the best benefits packages, while no matter how badly underperforming, a loyal employee will never be fired, almost certainly receiving some sort of different post or responsiility that will accommodate them better instead. In exchange, full adherence to company rules is demanded, as well as a variety of personal initiatives will be expected, even if they are not included in the official responsibilities of the job. Personal donations for office events, undertaking additional work and regular overtime are very common expectations for workers, with the last two being particularly taxing. The old Earther concept of a "salaryman" is fully translatable to Konyang's white collar corporate culture, with many people putting work above their personal lives, often to a fault. Those that are unable to or refuse to integrate with the system are silently and swiftly pushed out, losing face and reputation between the corporate circles, blackening their record and significantly diminishing their chances of working at a different large Konyanger company.<br />
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The introduction of synthetics has exacerbated the workload issue. Konyanger employees are always expected to put in more hours to remain competitive against their synthetic counterparts, many of them willing to go to far greater lengths than what is healthy or required by their employer. The issue, particularly in Suwon, has grown to such an extent that local laws were passed, limiting IPC overtime work as well as making leaves mandatory for them in order for humans to catch up more easily. Such legislation has been fiercely debated as unconstitutional and infringing on the rights of synthetic citizens, nonetheless remaining in effect as a temporary, much needed measure. While a strong work ethic is a very common trait, the rural populace is generally more relaxed than their urban counterparts.<br />
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Most private local conglomerates such as PACHROM, big law firms, banks or shipping companies are more often than not exclusively interested in hiring Konyangers, Konyanger IPCs or people of shared descent, turning away foreigners apart from token numbers each year. This is due to a widespread perception that only Konyangers understand the fundamentals of the corporate culture, and thus will conform and not raise issues about the more oppressive elements of their employment. The more artistically inclined studios such as Konymation however, regularly bring in talent from abroad to enrich their style and productions. Creativity in Konyang's media industry is encouraged to thrive in the workplace, and while crunching and overtime are not unheard of, most studios are admittedly more relaxed environments compared to the strict office complexes. Blue collar work on the other hand, largely is in a rather different situation when it comes to obligations and expectations. As Konyang's industrial heartland rests within the prefecture of New Hong Kong, the concepts of forced overtime, unwritten rules and subservience to management do not exist, thanks to the region's history of robust labor unions and collective bargaining.<br />
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==Life in Konyang==<br />
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===Urban Life===<br />
The Konyang of the 2460s bears little resemblance to the minor colony of 2305. Expansive cities dot its islands, with everyday life flowing very similarly to other advanced societies abroad. Its major urban centers are the respective capitals of each prefecture, with Suwon, Point Verdant and New Hong Kong having the heaviest density. Living in these areas has both its advantages and drawbacks, as Konyang's challenging landscape required innovative and compact planning. Surrounded by the sea on one side and either jungle, mountains, or both on the other, Konyanger cities tend to follow a pattern which consists of a sprawling and chaotic urban network orbiting dense downtowns. Cramped apartment blocks are particularly popular an unfortunate staple of the planet's "city charm", with the majority of the denizens living in so called "shoebox studios" due to the limited planning space and the general lack of raw materials such as steel. In the city, a large living space is a luxury that few can afford without sacrificing proximity to the central districts, where most of the economic activity is present. High rents are the norm in these situations, and unsurprisingly, the rich have the best pieces of real estate in Suwon and Point Verdant, owning entire buildings or large apartments with a seaside view in the heart of the urban center.<br />
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Apart from the job security and higher salaries offered by office work, urban life on Konyang presents limitless opportunities for nightlife and entertainment, as well as bustling shopping districts dedicated entirely to attracting tourists and people from out of town. Additionally, services are very well developed in the cities, with a shop at every corner catered to every need a person might virtually have. Small restaurants and takeout spots provide much needed and cheap hot meals for salarymen to grab during their small lunch breaks, many situated strategically within convenient reach of the big firms and office complexes. Healthcare and repairs are readily available in the form of hospitals and KRC clinics, as well as ready access to the country's biggest ports and space shuttledromes. Public transport is managed through a system of light urban rail and buses, and is regarded as essential for day-to-day movement; thanks to the rapid expansion during the Robotics Boom, poor planning has resulted in mazes of roads that are near always congested. Car traffic can delay commuters for hours in the overcrowded cities, despite Konyang's automobile industry trying to create even more compact and energy efficient cars. The snarled traffic is, in an odd way, a symbol of pride for some Konyangers. The mere fact that they have enough vehicles to have traffic issues is, compared to the rest of the outer ring, a symbol of the prosperity that has resulted from the planet's robotics industry.<br />
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However, smaller towns outside of the more famous centers have a different standard of living, with most being employed in water-related industries or manufacturing jobs. Wood is used as the primary material for construction, giving Konyanger towns a signature look that mixes modern technological achievements with centuries-old designs. A significant upside to life in these areas is the relative abundance of space, allowing for single-house homes outside of the centers, attracting pensioners and large working class families. Most towns are sustained by a nearby farming complex, dam or industrial center where the majority of the population is employed, while additionally serving as a hub for the surrounding villages that depend on it. Regional health centers, schools and other services can in many cases only be found at such towns, making them beacons for the wider area. The standard is not the same for all however, as many of these former "boom towns" of the robotics industry are entering into a spiral of decay due to an inability to continue to maintain their buildings and utilities. The cessation of government grants from the Alliance, the increase in price of construction materials from the offworld and many more calamities brought on by the phoron shortage have made these places unsustainable, leading to a flight of the younger population in waves of increased urbanization, contributing negatively to the growth and skyrocketing the mean age of the inhabitants.<br />
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===Rural Life===<br />
[[File:Pylon.png|thumb|right|Convoluted electricity pylons are a very common sight in the countryside.]]<br />
Life in less populated areas and islands is generally regarded as more carefree, with coastal villages being relatively self-sustaining and liberated from the complicated stresses and cramped environments found in cities. Such settlements are dedicated to aquaculture, farming algae, as well as moss collection. One would struggle to find a village not built almost entirely out of wood, with lumberyards frequently dotting the countryside to exploit the lush jungles. Fishing is a major source of subsistence for rural people, with Konyangers being taught how to fish an take to the sea from a relatively young age. Most families usually own a boat, passed down from each generation to the next as a heirloom and major financial asset. Needless to say, virtually all Konyangers are apt swimmers from childhood, with diving being regarded as both a popular sport and a timeless tradition; some villages specialize in the export of certain goods that must be collected underwater by hand, at reefs and moss-covered seabeds, requiring diving which is often done without equipment. Farming, to a more limited extent, is also a big source of income for rural families. As adequately sized clearings are rare in the surrounding jungle, conventionally farming the boggy, heavily wooded Konyanger terrain is impossible without the low-scale terraforming conducted in the early colonial days. Today, most "farmers" delve into their plots of land inside the jungle to harvest the fruit, moss and other goods that grow naturally. Surprising as it may be, many IPCs find themselves in these communities, finding work in manual labour or in the fields. Considered fully integrated, synthetics participate fully in a village's social life, playing an important part of the social fabric and the workforce. It is not uncommon for a village to possess a KRC repair station and charging spots dedicated to positronics, and village shops are always stocked with goods and materials specifically for the IPC inhabitants.<br />
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Much care is given to keep the traditions of the original colonists alive, with old rituals thriving and sometimes only found in the rural villages. Shrines belonging to local religions are placed in prominent positions within the village, with many rural Konyangers having some form of memory of themselves playing, praying or celebrating in the presence of a statue of an animal deity or god. Traditional music, instruments and the art of making them remain vibrant in countryside culture as well, being in stark difference to the heavily industrialized electronic and pop music of the cities. Most crucial and known of all are the festivals, with every village being known for their own unique twist and tradition. People from all over the world flock to the rural areas during the holidays just to attend, with many involving big parades, shows, games and large amounts of local delicacies. The government is very supporting of such customs, not only for the planet’s cultural heritage but also as an important tourist attraction for both Alliance and Coalition visitors. Religious undertones are a lot more prominent in these celebrations and in village life in general, as are the concepts of family and conservative Konyanger values; respect and reverence of ancestors and the elderly are particularly important.<br />
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===Mariner Life===<br />
Sailors, workers in remote hydroelectric rigs, radio technicians on scattered islands and anyone else who spends considerable amounts of time surrounded by the planet's vast seas and oceans is considered a mariner, an often thankless line of work in which millions of people are engaged. A life at sea means a life away from the comfort of family and friends, a life filled with danger and the unknown. As such, a stoic outlook is often required to cope with these harsh realities, with many aged mariners are hardened from decades of hard work and struggle against waves, cold and rain. In fact, the sight of thick, worn-out raincoats is indicative of a person's life as a mariner, with flocks of yell and orange-jacketed figures being very common in the large port-towns and cities of Konyang. Sailors and outpost technicians are expected to spend multiple months on a journey or at their post, the former sometimes being afforded short breaks at various resupply stops along the way. This lifestyle is not for naught however, as salaries for these professions far exceed the wages of corresponding employment on land. Many mariners can afford to both support a family and bank funds for the future, their income imrpoving substantially as they move up the ranks. Entire coastal villages and towns offer up their men, women and synthetics to the sea, who in turn bring back enough capital to completely transform the area with beautiful buildings and public spaces; the nicer a coastal settlement appears, the more chances it is dedicated to some mariner-related industry. It is not uncommon for even the lowliest of sailors to eventually own a vacation home in the countryside in addition to their primary residence, and many high-ranking captains and rig managers combine their wages to purchase their own merchant ship, giving birth to an ever increasing number of shipping companies.<br />
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The mariner lifestyle has subsequently created a specific subculture they and their families all in some way or another share, involving both traditional Konyanger values and traditions of the sea. Fidelity and supportiveness are particularly important for the mariner's relatives to exhibit, and it is in some way socially mandated. Seafarers regularly receive gifts, provisions and mail from home or the locals in the more distant ports they visit, and households may throw large parties to celebrate the homecoming of a relative after a particularly lenghty journey. Religious talismans and charms are sometimes carried for good luck, though most are generally not superstitious. Cleanliness is a point of pride for mariners, and since freshwater is not an issue, a clean shaven appearance is extremely common on ships and sea stations.<br />
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==Media==<br />
Public media in Konyang is a powerful industry, and as broad as it may seem, it is very tightly knit. Aside from galactic-wide reruns and broadcasts of other nation’s shows, little seems to stand out - except the audio broadcast and illustrated artistic avenues. These two are well-refined artistic giants compared to other forms of entertainment on the planet.<br />
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A huge portion of the planet’s political views and very “personality” are channeled through its larger studios, where many are found enthused to spread its culture galaxy-wide.<br />
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===Audio Broadcast===<br />
Radio, or more broadly the global net of wireless communication, is a huge industry in Konyang. Many IPCs have found harmless additions to their daily lives to be the standard headset and wearable radio kit, permitting any number of fast EAL communication planet-wide streamed directly into their receptors. While not particularly lucrative, the major broadcast stations have made quick work to monopolize their grip over this method of communication. Analog radio has also held a prominent position in people's routine, dating back to early colonial times. Most households maintain an analog radio set able to tune in to Konyang's many different stations that broadcast day and night on a planetary scale. Mariners especially make frequent use of the radio, with talk shows, news, and shipping forecasts keeping them company and up to date along their voyages in the open seas.<br />
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'''Matsumoto’s Talk and Walk'''<br />
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Meant for the on-the-go working IPC, this Encoded Audio Language bluespace broadcast is run by a particularly energetic “Matsumoto.” Though the true nature or even appearance of Matsumoto is unknown, they have constructed a massive following built from IPCs who obsessively strive to uphold their strict, rigid lifestyle. Talk and Walk states clear affiliation with multiple government and corporate organizations, particularly those with Hephaestus Industries. Matsumoto will often promote charitable foundations or corporate products found on Konyang, especially to those tuning in to their tourist-centric broadcast. When speaking in Sol Common, they take on a fast-paced and high-pitched masculine tone. They are frequently put on loudspeakers in popular tourist destinations, with recordings accompanying stylized eyeballs which track passerbys.<br />
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'''Great Blue Dot'''<br />
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Hidden somewhere in the depths of Konyang’s shallow seas is a moving, unseen broadcast station which has gone undetected since its first broadcast in 2430. It is known as the Great Blue Dot, attributed to what researchers believe to be its tremendous size and the color of its marker on sea-charts. While itself illegally broadcasts to every openly-receiving piece of hardware on the southern hemisphere of the planet, little can be gleaned of the actual broadcasts themselves. From incoherent gibberish of “swarms of wasps,” to “hives in the skies,” the outgoing material is poorly formed at best. Receiving these broadcasts is not illegal, contrarily, and the sheer number of watchful eyes bouncing back to the broadcast keeps its location perpetually hidden from local authorities. Search efforts for the source of the Great Blue Dot stopped in May of 2462, due to “excessive cost for little reward,” police officials say.<br />
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====Visual Animation====<br />
[[File:Konyang anime.png|thumb|Seasons 1-14 of BELIEVE!~, one of the flagship animations of Konyang entertainment industry. ]]<br />
Animated media is commonplace on Konyang, and chief among the many outlets that enhance its unique culture. Whereas hundreds, perhaps thousands of animated studios take up projects annually, very few make critical success. By far the most famous and successful studio, Konymation, remains a staple in everyday life, employing thousands throughout the planet in drawing, voicing and animating high budget movies and series of all kinds and genres. The industry, despite computer-aided assistance, heavily leans on IPC labor and organic oversight for its newly-animated creations. This makes it very costly, and few endeavors pay off. Some examples of those that succeeded are below.<br />
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'''Stormman'''<br />
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A very popular series created by Konymation, Stormman has been described as a staple animation by both human and IPC audiences. Aimed primarily at young adults, the action packed franchise features the masked protagonist, Stormman, harnessing the power of Konyang’s stormy and thunderous weather with his high-tech suit, battling crime and apocalyptic alien invaders alike, all while trying to lead a normal life. Eight seasons have been released so far, whereas merchandise of all sorts are widely prominent as well as lucrative. <br />
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'''Believe!~ (In the Time)'''<br />
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A hit animated series renowned for its choppy, quick action sequences led by a stoic heroine by the name of '''Marie,''' a time traveling Venusian shell IPC from the 2460’s. Targeted primarily at IPC audiences, it takes place in the pre-war “wild west” Frontier at around the early warp era. Being released in 2435, it has claimed fame as a “hit 30’s classic,” still being aired on prime broadcast stations globally in subtitled Sol Common. To organic viewers, much of the dialogue, tones or consistency is said to be lost in a muddle of incomprehensibly fast shoot-out scenes and plot twists that happen for split-seconds.<br />
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====Comics====<br />
Spearheaded by Mujigae Publishing, the planet's comic sector has seen great successes that brought paper back into the mainstream. Comic books have a huge share of the market on Konyang, and is perhaps the largest industry of its kind to exist in any civilized world in the Orion Spur. Comic genres vary from children-oriented adventures, to gritty, graphic murder mysteries for adults, all of which may incorporate elements of fantasy and superheroes. Movie and animation adaptations of Mujigae's comics are also a common practice used to boost numbers, making readers able to see their favourite stories and characters on the big screen.<br />
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'''Inspector 404/Kyung-Sun'''<br />
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[[File:Konyang comic.png|thumb|The front cover for the latest edition of I404, "Under the Shadows," featuring Kyung-Sun with superintendent Hayashi in the background.]]<br />
Since its debut in the issue ''“Phantoms of Suwon,”'' the series simply referred to as I404 is the most popular comic in the Orion Spur, and Konyang’s most profitable media franchise. The series centers around the titular '''Inspector 404,''' a shell IPC who goes by the alias of Kyung-Sun, in a bleak and highly dystopian Konyanger cityscape. While the series itself starts upon a Suwon highrise, the character would go on to travel the world in its 67 current issues. Issue #67, known as “Under the Shadows,” revolves around the Kyung-Sun going up against the same police establishment he had been serving, pitting himself against corrupt police superintendent Hayashi.<br />
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'''The Corrupted'''<br />
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Written by former National Police detective Yu-Mi Han and originally published in 2464, The Corrupted is a successful yet controversial detective thriller set in Suwon which is regarded as a more grounded, realistic story than the competing Inspector 404. In first days of Konyang’s independence Detective Sergeant Dae-Jung Song and his assistant Detective Synthetic Duri-IU#21 (later Detective Duri Ryu) uncover a conspiracy by the Trinary Perfection to overthrow its government, turning the planet into a theocracy under a Trinary leader known as “The Patriarch.” Over the course of the series Song and Ryu discover the Trinary Perfection intends to infect synthetic citizens with a virus distributed through overloaders known as “go-sticks,” and the series culminates in a battle between the National Police — aided by 5-Cheung and the Sea Bandits — and Trinary Perfection in the streets of Suwon when their conspiracy is uncovered. Criticized by the Trinary Perfection as, “baseless propaganda,” — a comment put on the back of the series’ first omnibus — The Corrupted has become increasingly popular during Konyang’s ongoing viral outbreak. Han — herself an IPC residing in Suwon — has used its fame to bring attention to the ongoing crisis and encourage cooperation with law enforcement.<br />
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==Fashion==<br />
Being as moist as it is, one would expect the average Konyanger outfits to consist of drysuits and reflective outerwear, with raincoats and the like. This is the case in the majority of urban settings, whereas people in the villages take quite their own unique spin on their fashion choices.<br />
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Insulation from water is difficult to come by without some form of thermal insulation coming with it. This is clearly suboptimal, seeing as beating the heat is just as important as staying dry here. In their ingenuity, rural Konyangers have utilized a “miracle weave” of natural fibers acquired from the feathers of much avian wildlife planetside. Replicating the byproducts of these feathers has proven impossible, leaving only hunting to produce the necessities for the weave. Traditional villages take immense pride in their unique attire, many calling it the most important difference between them and the cities. Combining vibrant colours and utility, Konyanger fields are regularly dotted with farmers sporting colourful ponchos, robes and traditional Gat headwear. Most rural Konyanger “fashion” draws from this weave in some form - resulting in cool, waterproof, and sharp-looking outerwear resembling a poncho in most cases. More complex items such as jackets and legwear are quite expensive and marketed as luxury items for the elite, with the weave still in quite high demand.<br />
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Urban fashion on the other hand is rather detached from the realities of that of the villages. The natural, feather based fabrics are rarely found amongst the denizens of the large cities, while those who do own them are quickly singled out as either people from the countryside, or individuals of a higher class. Rainy weather still being the primary issue, city dwellers have adopted a different stance, preferring clothes of industrial origin.<br />
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In combination with normal everyday clothing items, these Konyangers have adopted a heavy use of water resistant plastics. Stemming from the first years of settlement on the planet, plastic and translucent raincoats were slowly shaped into all sorts of jackets, coats and pants, creating a more comfortable and utilitarian approach to keeping clothes dry. Slowly developing into a fashion sense, and with research on more flexible materials, plastic-based attire has culminated into being the norm. LED lights, translucency and water resistance are the staples of this trend, the youth and clothes designers taking it a step further, with holographic microprojectors being woven and fluorescent substances infused into the material, creating quite the cutting edge in fashion.<br />
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{{Navbox Konyang}}</div>The Strykerhttps://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=Konyang&diff=32261Konyang2024-03-07T02:34:29Z<p>The Stryker: </p>
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==Overview==<br />
Originally established in 2305 as a Solarian Alliance Outer Ring planet, Konyang is presently one of the more distant outposts under the Coalition of Colonies after its independence in '''2462'''. Konyang’s capital city Suwon, the largest settlement on the planet, is built upon a natural formation that defines most of Konyang's geography: islands with large interior mountains that feature lush, but soaking wet, coastal jungle regions. Konyang was initially a relatively average Outer Ring settlement intended to export water, before the discovery of mysterious, deactivated drones in 2407 led to a robotics boom occuring on the planet that lasted well into the 2450s. The Konyang of today is a planet renowned for its robotics industry, though some of its initial luster has faded in the years following its boom. Water, however, remains a key industry - the planet has a remarkably low salination level, meaning that essentially all of its water is drinkable. Konyang Solarian Common, or Konyang Common, is the most used language on the planet inside and outside of major population centers. Due to its proximity to the Coalition of Colonies planets, Coalition member planets often import water from Konyang. In major cities and universities, Tradeband can be found being spoken, though it remains rare. Speakers of the language are generally from off-planet, moving to Konyang during its robotics boom. Konyang almost completely lacks valuable minerals due to intensive mining efforts carried out by drones—whose source remains unknown—hundreds of years before it was colonized.<br />
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'''Because of the ethnic make-up of Konyang's original settlers and assimilation of immigrants into the native population during the first AI boom, human characters born on Konyang will have names and appearances consistent with the people of China, the Korean Peninsula, and Japanese Islands. Only native Konyangers or Konyang-made IPCs may select the Konyanger accent. This is enforceable by server moderators and admins.'''<br />
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[[File:Konyang flag.png| The Konyanger flag was adopted in 2462, having unofficially been used by pro-autonomy circles long before the declaration of independence. The traditional taitju represents peace and harmony as the highest values of the new state, with the color blue representing the waterways the planet is known for and yellow, their aim of prosperity. The white background represents Konyang's purity.<br />
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==History==<br />
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===Conception and Planning | 2200s - 2299===<br />
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When the United Nations proposed and eventually enforced the creation of the Alliance of Sovereign Solarian Nations, China, Korea and Japan were once more forced to band together to compete with the world for influence inside the newly found institution. Rivals such as the European Union, the Soviet Union, the Commonwealth and the United States were first in line to claim hegemonic roles, their space programs forming the core of Solarian colonization of the Inner, Middle and Outer rings over the centuries, populating them with their own peoples and sparking an unofficial race for prestige land grabs, one which the Department of Colonization was more than happy to let unfold, resulting in the extremely fast expansion of Humanity into the Orion Spur. While regional powers such as India and the Mediterranean countries began creating their own colonies on Gadpathur and Assunzione, the East Asian trio were relegated to secondary roles of supplying technology, labor and capital without any actual representation in the stars, a situation problematic for some and resented by many in the “sovereign” governments.<br />
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It was thus decided to present a plan to Solarian functionaries for a colony spearheaded by China and supported heavily by Korea and Japan, aimed at restoring the pride of the three “cousin-nations” and their position in the Alliance. Intense negotiations and technical planning amounted to years of disagreements over the name, location and allocation of responsibilities between the partners, as well as the presence of China’s Einstein Engines megacorporation, which offered to finance a great portion of the initial effort. Soon however, the advent of the Second Great Depression and the following Interstellar War in the mid-late 2200’s saw a bankrupt Alliance put a halt to any colonization projects, resulting in the plans being shelved. The war took a great toll on the core Solarian worlds, including Earth and its nations which were called to provide manpower, funds and materiel for the Solarian Navy. Federal China’s economy tanked completely under the pressure, relying on IMF bailouts and stays of payment on the salaries of its public sector, with pensionaries and students being most severely hit, resulting in massive social upheaval which would have long lasting consequences for the country’s financial hegemony in the post-war region.<br />
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As peace and relative stability returned, the Alliance found a newly independent, sizable and embittered Coalition of Colonies rival its claims in the Galactic East, calling for the presence of military garrisons and naval stations to protect the border. It was at this time that colonization projects were beginning to reemerge, with the Pacific Pact racing once more to submit a viable plan for a colony that would represent East Asia. A fatigued China could no longer bear the incredible costs it aspired to as the leader of the colonial venture before the war, giving significant leeway to the other two partners and largely retreating behind its megacorporation, Einstein Engines, which was still willing to back the endeavor. An aggressive Korean delegation largely dictated terms, giving birth to the “Konyang Project”, named after the Konyang University in which the colonial undertaking was revealed and presented to the public in 2299.<br />
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===Early Colonial Period | 2304 - 2400s===<br />
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[[File:solyang_flag.png|thumb|right|The flag of Konyang under Alliance administration.]]<br />
The plan envisioned five convoys for the establishment of four primary settlements on a strategically placed planet selected by the Solarian Navy for the support of local naval operations against any threats from the Frontier Alliance. The targeted planet was revealed to be a lush world first discovered in 2278 by a long-range scouting probe, dominated by water and possessing a breathable atmosphere, placing it in a prime position to sustain Human civilization. The quickly named “Haneunim” solar system possessed a few more bodies of secondary importance, and the first convoy was scheduled to launch on the 10th of March 2304, from the Wenchang spaceport in South China, to meet the long-distance freighters in orbit of Luna that would carry the first 5,000 colonists to Konyang. The ethnic mix-up of the colonists were equally distributed amongst the three nationalities, with all being volunteers and 646 of them under the employ of Einstein Engines.<br />
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It took the warp-propelled convoy one year to reach its destination, traversing light years of Solarian vastness before meeting the Navy squadron which would escort them to the planet, with touchdown being made on September 8th, 2305. Konyang was covered in jungles and great mountain ranges, requiring great labor from the men and women of the expedition to create the first settlement, under the direction of officers from the Department of Colonization. Two months later, Unity Station would receive the first signal passed along by the Navy, originating from beacon Number 22890/223, Designation ‘SUWON’. The foundations had been laid. In the following decades, all five convoys would come to form the basis of the “Konyang Territory”, a colony directly controlled by the Alliance and the Solarian Navy as the base of the 58th Fleet. Boosted by its status as a naval base, the abundance of freshwater and with the backing of Einstein, all three cities were realized; Suwon and Boryeong, New Hong Kong, and Aoyama, each at the start holding ethnic majorities of Koreans, Chinese and Japanese respectively.<br />
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===The Robotics Boom | 2407 - 2430s===<br />
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Despite the acceptable climate and near unlimited freshwater, the colonial government soon realized an alarming lack of mineral resources, forcing a complete reliance on external trade and supplies from the Navy for any and all industrial goods and even basic construction materials, a reality which had to be corrected as fast as possible. A planet-wide scanning expedition was organized, while “patriotic aid” was fervently being fundraised in China, Japan and Korea for nearly a whole century to cope with the colonists' increasing demands. This led to a landmark moment in the history of Konyang, when on the 21st of April 2404, mining teams dug into a collapsed tunnel outside the vicinity of Aoyama, discovering a defunct mining drone, crushed by tonnes of rock and soil. The chassis appeared broken and old, though its very presence implied the exploitation of the planet by a different civilization.<br />
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The device was hurried back in secrecy to a panel of dumbfounded colonial officials, who deemed that their corporate partners would be more suited in tracking down its origin. As such, after a quick formality bid behind closed doors, the Alliance sold off its odd piece of government property to Einstein Engines whose scientists saw it as a curious case worth pursuing. Month after month, the Terraneus Diagnostics laboratory in Aoyama kept receiving bits and pieces from similar drones recovered from abandoned, centuries-old mineshafts, culminating in the 2406 discovery of a sealed vault containing a great number of intact mining drones. The severity of this discovery was immediately apparent to the scientists. Words were had with the governor of Konyang by the local Einstein Engines representative, and it was decided to keep the drones a very closely-guarded secret - with only select Terraneus and government officials even being aware of their existence at all, let alone what was being done with them.<br />
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The Terraneus research team worked feverishly, though in secret, for months upon months. Staff were quietly shipped in from offworld in order to not alert outside observers, and the team continued to work upwards of eighty hour weeks in order to crack the drones. In mid-2407, they achieved one of the most remarkable breakthroughs in recent scientific memory by cracking the AI algorithms of the drones. Information of this moved rapidly from the local Einstein Engines office up the corporate chain and moved equally rapidly up the government's chain from provincial office to Sol itself. The information spread like wildfire, and humanity now had the secret of AI despite not truly knowing from where or who these machines came from. This was little more than a footnote to the Nralakk Federation - to them, these AI were crude and hardly approached the machines that had driven their civilization to ruin.<br />
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The robotics boom of Konyang caused a variety of benefits and harms to the previously marginal outer ring planet. The economy ballooned massively, as did its standard of living and industries. Konyang moved from a rural backwater that exported food and water to a high-tech planet that still exported basic goods, but primarily focused upon robotics. Megacorporations flocked to the planet: Einstein Engines, already present through Terraneus, rapidly secured dominance over the planet; Hephaestus Industries struggled with Einstein dominated competition before selling its factories over to local government control in 2427; and Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals, despite its skrell benefactors, purchased rights to examine the planet's biosphere from Einstein. The fact that their prosthetic limbs were originally designed on this planet has been stated to be a "happy coincidence" by its board. Due to the mass arrival of corporations, jobs were readily available - the planet was booming.<br />
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A massive migration wave of Einstein employees and their families to Aoyama made the city wrangle the spot of first in importance from the nominal capital of Suwon, to the point where the expatriate scientific community and their dependents outnumbered the local Japanese original colonists. The city quickly became known to Humanity as “Point Verdant”, the name assigned to the Terraneus Diagnostics laboratory in Aoyama, while the parent countries on Earth invested billions to capitalize on the success of their colonial project, to lift the planet into a modern world and reap the public relations benefits of their colony achieving a breakthrough in artificial intelligence.<br />
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The rapid expansion of Konyang's industries and cities had overtaxed the limited bureaucracy on the planet to the breaking point, and architects were in short supply. Urban planning on Konyang is estimated to be some of the worst in Alliance space outside of New Hai Phong as a result, with cities such as Point Verdant often having haphazard roads running through them and districts smashed together with no apparent rhyme or reason - a legacy of corporate jockeying for areas of interest, and the municipal corruption that came with it. There are countryside facilities originally utilized for drone research and retrieval that have, in recent years, fallen into disuse and disarray. Such facilities often dot the mountains and foothills of Konyang, slowly being overtaken by nature - sometimes with unfortunate results when these facilities have been improperly stripped of dangerous materials. The environment also suffered in areas where drones were found - jungles were cut or burnt away by corporations in order to get at the precious drones below, prefab buildings were orbitally dropped and erected, and landing zones were cut into the landscape itself.<br />
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The stormy tidal waves so infamous for tormenting the early colonists were tamed through the building of sea walls, a comprehensive road network linked the remote villages with the urban centers, and the city of Ganzaodeng was raised from the rocky desert. The Konyanger conglomerate PACHROM would mark the rise of the first native Chaebols, building shipyards, dams, hydroelectric plants and the first space fleet capable of ferrying enormous capacities of water across interstellar systems.<br />
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===The Positronic Integration | 2410s===<br />
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Soon enough, IPCs entered production on the planet, making Konyang one of the first places to embrace the positronic revolution. The limited resources saw higher prices, lessening the availability of domestically produced frames. Furthermore, the still rudimentary waterproofing technologies meant that IPCs could not work for long hours without shelter, ensuring that human jobs would remain safe from automation. When in the rest of Sol IPCs were produced en-masse for labor, Konyanger IPCs were more integrated in white-collar employment and indoors service-related work. Meanwhile, a growing media culture based on animation combined with the Konyanger recycle-friendly attitude, giving newer generations a fresh look on positronic intelligence, one that valued them as people rather than a disposable resource. The lack of widespread automation never brought the anti-synthetic sentiment so common in the rest of Sol, and IPCs in time became a unique cultural phenomenon in the colony’s urban centers.<br />
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Solarian laws governing the relations between IPCs and mankind were nominally enforced on Konyang, barring synthetics from gaining their own freedom, a fact which remained a thorn between the more liberal, younger Konyangers and the older generations. Einstein Engines allied with the Solarian governorship to press for the continuing status of Konyang as a colony, preventing elections and thus any liberal political influence from threatening the company’s grip on its synthetic workforce. This however, did not prevent Konyanger society to further integrate IPCs, even if the concept of universal citizenship for all synthetics was still far from publicly accepted. Aoyama was most receptive to the positronics, as a center of research and culture, with IPCs welcomed in people’s houses, treated like family and celebrated in festivals and even religious ceremonies. Suwon sentiment remained ambivalent, though many Solarian officials and naval officers expressed most severe concerns, in many cases pressing for crackdowns and questioning the morals of Konyanger citizens. The denizens of New Hong Kong and Ganzaodeng on the other hand, were most unhappy, with the powerful Chinese factory and shipyard labor unions remaining vocally opposed to IPC rights in the workplace, owing to their ties with the wider Solarian unions.<br />
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The profound effects of the emergence of this positronic culture were soon felt across the planet, change being heralded through a wave of demonstrations in mid to late 2412. High school and university students in Aoyama took to the streets to call for synthetic rights, in one of the few instances of pro-IPC disturbances on Solarian soil. In particular, the students called for the immediate emancipation of owned synthetics, marching from the main First Avenue down to the Governor's House and being joined by crowds of people and IPCs alike. The Aoyama Constabulary alongside Terraneus security forces were ordered to put a swift end to the march, resulting in the first major incident since the founding of the colony. Over 400 student injuries were recorded, the crowds responding with rocks and branches to the authorities’ tear gas and water cannons. 247 arrests were made that day, sparking additional outrage in the student movement as the ringleaders were tried as adults and given lengthy prison sentences. Smaller incidents were also noted in Suwon and Boryeong, marking 2412 as a year of upheaval and social change, laying the foundations for full IPC citizenship.<br />
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===Late Colonial Period | 2410s - 2440s===<br />
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As Konyang left behind the troubled ’10s and social peace returned through decrees permitting local city authorities to afford certain permissions for IPCs. This followed the final robotics' boom peak in the 2430s, seeing the planet’s GDP growth reach new levels. The colony’s industrial potential skyrocketed, with hundreds of hydroelectric dams, sea walls and shipyards creating thousands of new jobs in New Hong Kong, the new industrial core of Konyang. Labour relations shifted dramatically, as the new Hephaestus-pioneered industrial chassis enabled IPCs to work in the most difficult of conditions, sidelining and driving off the all powerful Gwongfu labor unions, with human employees forced into the urban centers and Ganzaodeng, contributing to a skyrocketing of the local IPC population in the prefecture.<br />
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Suwon saw a significant rise in business activity with the outside world, emboldening private ventures to the neighboring Frontier Alliance, bringing in massive profits from moss and entertainment exports. The animation industry reached new heights, with hundreds of new studios producing pioneering and high quality work, including classics like “One Day in My Life” and “Tomonomimi”, two of the most highly acclaimed works of media in recent Solarian memory. The entertainment sector brought new life to the Konyanger tourism industry as well, with more and more people rediscovering the distant hidden gem tucked deep in the fringes of the Alliance. The Suwon Stock Exchange was listed for the first time in the Chicago Financial Review, Sol’s most coveted investment periodical, as “Upcoming”, leading to billions of credits flowing in the country from abroad.<br />
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New chaebol conglomerates emerged, replacing even Einstein products with widely successful “Local, Cheaper and Better” campaigns. While Gwok Foods was making headlines in 2439 as the most successful Konyanger “IPC-inspired” exporter by yearly gross tonnage, the Ayame Motor Corporation created the first “completely Konyanger” 2-seat automobile designed for the cramped roads of Suwon and Point Verdant, becoming an instant hit. The Boryeong based Mujigae Publishing brought comics back into the youth’s hands, and Konymation had expanded to control cinemas, movie production studios, theme parks and restaurant chains in its ever expanding media empire.<br />
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===Independence and Present Day | 2462 - Present===<br />
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The Mars Violet Dawn catastrophe of 2462 signaled an era of widespread uncertainty and energy insecurity for the entirety of the Sol Alliance, with the Spur-wide phoron crisis exacerbating the situation for the Alliance’s Middle and especially Outer Ring colonies. A Konyanger recession in the late 2450s had already stretched the colonial government thin, with riots over the cost of living and unemployment in New Hong Kong and Suwon making national news for years on end. As the shaken corporations entered discussions on how they would survive the ever increasing phoron costs, it was made clear to everyone that the Alliance could not, and would not fund the refitting of the corporate fleets with the new Suzuki-Zhang Hammer Drive engine, threatening the complete cutoff of Konyang from outer space should the local Bluespace gate fail. Only a few Einstein vessels and the 58th Fleet stationed on the planet remained as the only reliable link between Konyang and the Spur.<br />
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The shortage soon hit the domestic market, leading to dangerous price increases for even the most essential of supplies. The average Konyanger saw their purchasing power plummet, as salaries remained stagnant in the face of a decreasing supply. The colonial Governor Hyun Kyung-Ho, turned to the only emergency option left, Earth. It was not the first time that Patriotic Aid was raised in China, Korea and Japan, though this time it proved most underwhelming. As the call for help fell on ears of men that could not even help their own economies, the trophy colony had to be abandoned to its own devices, with many in the East Asian public accusing Konyangers of greed and forgetting them in their apogee of financial success. With this last link to the past cut off, the question and possibility of independence soon started circling.<br />
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There was no time for serious debate however, with the Alliance being plunged into rebellion and collapse. On November 12, the 58th Fleet hastily departed Konyang, declaring a state of emergency in the system and abandoning the colonial government to its fate. Only elements of the Solarian Army and the Constabularies remained to maintain order, themselves being composed almost entirely of local Konyanger enlisted. The situation immediately turned into unrest, as public sentiment against the ineptitude of the Alliance boiled over into the streets. Massive student protests saw the storming of public buildings and central plazas in every major town and city, demanding a sharp reduction to the cost of living, IPC emancipation and a barring of the 58th Fleet from returning. Government reaction was mild, limited to the prevention of damages and protection of private property. Hyun Kyung-Ho was otherwise sympathetic to the students’ cause, sparking outrage within groups of Alliance-minded Army officers and Einstein corporate elites, who sought to prevent any secession of Konyang.<br />
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Thus, on November 15 2462, elements of the Army garrison under Lieutenant General Jiang Hongbing mobilized against the wishes of the Governor, taking up key positions in Suwon and Point Verdant. The mutinous 8th Sappers infiltrated the historic SUWON beacon telecommunications complex, preparing the country for a silent coup and preventing any long range communications with Sol. Jiang Hongbing, inspired by actions of mutinous admirals, took it upon himself to restore Konyang to the Alliance by marching the Army into the streets. While some of the formations under his command were willing to participate, the vast majority refused to bear arms against the Konyanger Governor or the student movements. In the following day, an internal power struggle saw many officers confined to their quarters, with Army hardliners being arrested, chased off or even assaulted in their own barracks as a loyalist armored brigade blocked access to the Governor’s House, preventing Hongbing’s men from touching Hyun Kyung-Ho.<br />
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With the coup’s inglorious end visible, the Governor’s staff were racing into negotiations with diplomatic officers from Coalition of Colonies still in the country for an express accession into the Coalition, following Konyang’s independence. Jiang Hongbing’s associates surrendered, himself fleeing into the thick jungles of Boryeong Prefecture, declaring a patriotic struggle in the Alliance’s name before soon being betrayed and confined at the 58th base’s Brig. On November 24 2462, telecommunications were restored, and Konyanger independence was broadcast to the world. The country’s preliminary accession into the Coalition was soon after announced, turning a new leaf in Konyang’s history. While the news was received with muted reaction from a confused Alliance government with more pressing matters to handle, the secession of Konyang was a huge blow to the three parent countries. After Governor Hyun Kyung-Ho assembled the nation’s intellectuals, economic and political figures, it was decided that he would remain in place as independent Konyang’s first Governor to organize free elections and set up the foundations for a democratic state.<br />
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Now, as a free Konyang comes out to the world stage, strong government initiative has seen its large synthetic factories nationalized, rapidly introducing legislation to establish the relationship with Einstein Engines. While they still are the dominating megacorporation on the planet, Einstein has lost most of its heavy industry, though still retaining the important research facilities around the vaults, as well as a good portion of software and positronic brain creation.<br />
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==Location and Environment==<br />
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===The Haneunim System===<br />
The Haneunim System, centered around the yellow star it is named for, Haneunim, contains four major celestial bodies, including the planet of Konyang. The whole system bears evidence of ancient mining operations, missing an asteroid belt to separate the inner and outer system with what few rocks remain being mostly picked clean of minerals.<br />
* '''Huozhu'''<br />
The innermost planet is known as Huozhu and remains practically inaccessible due to the scorching heat of Haneunim. Unmanned drones have indicated that the planet, which is visible to the naked eye on Konyang, is greatly lacking in any mineral wealth and has no atmosphere to speak of.<br />
* '''Hwanung'''<br />
The second planet from Haneunim, Hwanung, is an insignificant dwarf planet believed to have maintained a thin arid atmosphere before most of its mass was artificially stripped away. While relatively close to Konyang and far cooler than Huozhu, observation and a handful of expeditions revealed that most of the planet's crust had been artificially stripped away, exposing its solid, icy mantle. Konyanger exogeologists continue to survey the planet from time to time and PACHROM has obtained a permit to mine ice in order to meet their quotas to Orepit.<br />
* '''Qixi'''<br />
The third planet in the System is Konyang, accompanied by its lifeless moon of Qixi. Qixi is noteworthy for housing a KASF base and shipyard, the Konyanger military's largest off-planet possession; while more prestigious than working aboard one of the KASF's orbital stations, being posted here is considered boring by some. Some in the government have discussed plans to build more shipping hubs on the moon, akin to Biesel's own Valkyrie, but these talks have largely remained academic due to adequacy of Konyang's existing spaceport facilities.<br />
* '''Shiranui'''<br />
Shiranui, a ringed gas giant colored blue thanks to its methane composition, is the outermost planet from Haneunim. Prior to the discovery of phoron, private companies operated over three dozen methane-harvesting facilities in orbit around Shiranui. That number has dwindled down to just thirteen in the past few decades; the remaining workers, their families having often worked in the industry for many years, are usually bitter towards NanoTrasen. The Aerospace Forces keep a number of unmanned satellites around the gas giant in order to better monitor pirate and refugee activity.<br />
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An asteroid belt, far to the outskirts and composed mostly of ice, forms a ring around the entire system, although this remains largely unexploited by both the Konyanger government and local corporations. It is instead the stomping ground of both refugees fleeing the Sol Wildlands, and the pirates that seek to prey on them.<br />
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===Geography===<br />
[[File:Konyang_map_sat.png|A geographic map of Konyang, showcasing the planet's different biomes. |thumb|800px]]<br />
Primarily a tropical world smaller than Earth, Konyang boasts a mean radius of 5,111 kilometers. Freshwater oceans cover upwards of 88% of the planet’s surface. These oceans also grant Konyang its signature green color when viewed from orbit, in no small part thanks to the abundant presence of moss in the planet’s waterways. The planet’s continents are classified by its larger landmasses and island chains, although given the tides, the planet remains studded with small island chains and archipelagos that ebb and flow with the season. Two small ice caps exist on Konyang where the planet experiences a miniscule amount of snowfall and cold climates. The Konyanger terrain is principally mountainous, with large ranges covering vast areas of the planet’s landmasses. The tallest peak belongs to Mount Sansin, the highest mountain standing at a record 13.890 meters above sea level, its base forming an island of its own. Flanking the mountains are usually lush jungles, present in almost every island and continent in varying densities. This means that settlements have to be located in clearings adjacent to the coastline, on terrain with relatively even elevation. The largest and most dense jungle is located in Bukupo, an island in the heart of the Boryeong Prefecture. The largest landmass on the planet is Cheomseongtang, home of the Suwon prefecture and the nation’s capital. Other notable landmasses are the Oshima islands, hosting the largest mountain ranges, as well as the Yu islands, home of the only biome that could be described as a desert. New Hokkaido is the largest northernmost territory, renowned for its biodiversity and frosty tundra due to its proximity to the planet’s pole, as well as a unique lack of jungles. It is administered directly by the Government of Konyang, being the site of many scientific expeditions and military exercises, only boasting a population of a few hundred people.<br />
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===Environment===<br />
[[File:Konyang.png|An image of Konyang, displaying mossy oceans and algae-covered water as the face of the planet. |thumb]]<br />
Konyang features a highly atypical environment for a habitable planet: it is entirely freshwater. The surface of the planet is primarily oceans, with estimates placing upwards of 88% of the planet as covered in water. What is not under the sea are the islands of Konyang, where the vast majority of its population lives. These islands follow a general pattern: a small coastal area and a large mountain range ringing the island. The freshwater oceans of Konyang feature a remarkable diverse biosphere, and Konyang underwater flora, such as freshwater moss, is often used in the planet's native dishes and exported offworld, as far afield as Sol and Tau Ceti. Konyang is defined by two seasons: wet, lasting nine months, and dry, lasting three months.<br />
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The coastal regions of Konyang represent the smallest regions of its islands, but contain upwards of 90% of the planet's population. Often called the "coastal jungles" of Konyang, these areas are extremely wet - flooding is an issue in many areas, though the bulk of populated and urban areas are protected by extensive flood protection infrastructure, primarily lengthy complexes of walls. Coastal areas feature a wealth of plant and animal life, both of which have been put under stress by the rapid expansion of Konyang's cities.<br />
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Although Konyang’s coastal waters are often tinted green from moss, even more so than its oceans, harvesting and cleanup efforts along the coasts of the main and important islands have resulted in some sections of the planet appearing blue. These areas are often exploited for settlements and as tourist destinations for their scenic looks, while dedicated seaweed and algae farms dot the planet, providing an income for local villages and traditional producers. The most famous Konyanger food exporter, Go-Go Gwok!, has the largest involvement in the moss and seaweed industry.<br />
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The inland mountain ranges of Konyang can be up to several kilometers in height in some areas, with smaller foothills featuring some rare settlements leading up to them. These ranges, which lack valuable minerals completely due to Glorsh-era mining, are the reason for Konyang's jungles - they form an effective rain shadow. Some mountains have what is assumed to be collapsed mines in them, deactivated drones scattered throughout.<br />
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A phenomenon unique to the easternmost Yu islands of the Ganzaodeng prefecture, inland deserts are created due to the rain shadow caused by the surrounding mountain ranges. These are the least populated areas of the planet. Extraordinarily dry, little grows or lives in these environments. Rare Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals facilities can be found in this area, taking advantage of the isolation and relatively sterile environment that the inland deserts offer.<br />
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Lastly, the oceans of Konyang are regularly stormy, the large waves being harnessed for their energy in electricity production at numerous such outposts, scattered throughout the unpopulated islets in the farthest and most secluded areas.<br />
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===Flora and Fauna===<br />
Wildlife on Konyang is a peculiar mix of its original environment and the thousands of invasive species introduced by Human colonization. Species introduced in the initial colonization of the planet include huge herbivores and peaceful, if ecologically destructive, wildlife. Additionally, the large oceans are host to an uncountable number of species of fish, crustaceans and aquatic molluscs, with many being unique to their region of origin. Flora on Konyang is among its most famed aspects, spearheaded by the mossy shores and overgrowth which covers the vast majority of its visible terrain. All plant life which survives on Konyang must survive the extremely damp environment, and as such either thrives in the water, or is capable of moving away from it. Konyang's waters are famously covered in green moss and seaweed, giving it its signature color when viewed from orbit.<br />
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Some examples of unique flora and fauna are:<br />
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'''Shelfers'''<br />
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In the marsh and lowlands of Konyang's algae coasts resides an invasive species of large omnivores known as '''Shelfers.''' These are gluttonous moss-feasting beasts, with a distinct six-legged and bloated appearance. They are excellent swimmers, owed to webbed joints and a wedge shaped, slick head. From this, it uses a set of large protruding teeth to scrape moss and undersea growths. This creature is endangered, and displayed as a national animal thanks to its unique appearance. Originally a danger to unprepared colonization, these gained a reputation for its tendency to attack colonists.<br />
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These were first encountered by colonists who had shipped wildlife to and from Arusha, where escaped subjects managed to reproduce- over the years becoming a cultural icon due to their miraculous beneficial place they have in Konyang's ecosystem.<br />
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'''Konyanger Jeweler Cockatoo'''<br />
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Known for its affinity to decorate its nesting grounds with surface-level pearls and gems of all sorts is an opportunistic carnivore, the '''Jeweler Cockatoo.''' This large avian is an offshoot of the Earth parrot, bred originally to “liven the landscape” of Konyang’s dreary inner mountainous lands. Eventually, with the assistance of high-level genetic modification, they grew to giant proportions whilst maintaining the health and lifestyle of a standard - ''if highly dangerous'' - parrot. <br />
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Where small patches of forest and barrens clash, these birds thrive and craft beautiful roosts in the relative safety of open fields. In these fields, diminutive predators avoid the large avian’s glare (or don’t, and are frequently preyed upon.) The Jeweler Cockatoo possesses two sharp talons on one digit of each of its feet, and a short - but unbelievably sharp beak, refined further by its tendency to dig. The wingspan of these birds can grow up to fifteen feet.<br />
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The Jeweler Cockatoo is the national bird of Konyang, with many stylized imagery depicting the bird in some shape or form.<br />
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'''Glittering Konyang Moss'''<br />
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Found in vast plains of coastal territories in excess is the overflowing, yet precious resource of '''Konyang moss.''' One of its primary exports, this barely-tapped commodity retains a huge capacity to feed Konyang’s already sturdy ecosystem, and the billions which reside upon it, and more to export. The evolutionary process which grew this mystical, shimmering moss is a mystery, however its luster and fields of green it generates has a wonderful impact on sustaining Konyang’s moist, overgrown and greenery-rich habitat. <br />
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Konyang moss is pivotal to its moving industries, and even after the robotics boom, it remains a stable source of incoming development for the since-burgeoning planet. The moss’ nutritional properties have been highly studied in recent decades. Its rapid pace of growth is exclusive to Konyang’s ecological circumstances, with everything from subterranean heat, to the algae present in its beautiful green seas factoring in.<br />
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==Economy==<br />
While young, the nation of Konyang boasts a powerful regional economy built upon decades of trade with both the Alliance and various Coalition partners. A developed country, Konyang manages to surpass its near total lack of ore with robust exports of foodstuff and energy, a strong shipping industry and a powerful robotics sector.<br />
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===Raw Materials===<br />
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[[File:Konyang dam.png|thumb|Dams and sea walls are a common sight on Konyang, used to protect cities and population centres from floods and tsunamis, as well as to exploit the violent waves for electricity.]]<br />
Konyang's freshwater oceans were perhaps the largest boon to the starting colonists, and continues to play a substantial role behind the planet's exports. Fishing provides for a large aspect of the domestic economy, with millions of fishing boats and trawlers scouring the shores and oceans for all kinds of fish, crustaceans and other aquatic creatures, of which a complete list doesn't exist. Such is the biodiversity in Konyang's waters, that each region has its own fish markets which serve clients all over the planet and the Spur. Besides fishing, Konyang's biggest aquatic produce in terms of volume belongs to its enormous seaweed and moss harvesting industries. Entire ships are purpose-built for collecting wild greenery which floats on the high seas and the bays of Konyang, bringing in billions in offworld exports and domestic sales. The harvesting of moss is not exclusive to the sea and the aquatic farms either, as many edible varieties are collected inland, both in the planet's jungles and mountain ranges. Konyanger moss is Spur-renowned thanks to powerful marketing campaigns and the spread of the planet's cuisine.<br />
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With tremendously stormy wet seasons lasting most of the year, it is no surprise that Konyanger corporations have attempted and managed to harness the energy of the wind, waves and waters of the planet. Electricity is generated through a network of dams, hydroelectric plants, wave power stations and tidal power stations, all dotted across the vast shores and oceans of Konyang. The electricity produced is then either stored in super capacitors, or is directly wired inland through thick underwater cables, catering to the needs of virtually every power grid on the globe. Much of it is also transported on board space freighters lined with rows of large batteries, ready to make the journey to Alliance and Coalition worlds as part of the lucrative electricity export industry.<br />
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Lastly, Konyang excells in the export of water and timber. The continent-spanning untouched jungles provide an excellent source of wood for foreign markets as well as domestic construction, of which there is very heavy use in lieu of metal structures. The freshwater is also extremely easy to chemically filter, skipping any desalination process before being bottled or shipped as-is on board of one of many of Konyang's water barges; large hollow space vessels with tankers and pools for water storage.<br />
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===Maritime Shipping===<br />
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Surface shipping is another one of the main forces behind Konyang's domestic market economy, and an inseparable part of the nation's maritime culture. The docks and shipyards of New Hong Kong are the beating heart of the sector, which provides employment to more than 20% of the entire planet's population. Entire towns were formed and dedicated to housing the laborers and their families close to the coast, and many islands subsist entirely off of seamen's salaries and work at nearby electricity stations. Surface shipping, while slower, is a lot more economical for planetary moving of goods across the continents and islands of Konyang, being preferred to airlifting or orbital shuttling. Aside from the creation of jobs and the transportation of goods, Konyang's shipping industry produces excellent sailors who can rival those of planets such as Europa, many of whom eventually transition to space.<br />
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===Robotics and Services===<br />
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Ever since the robotics boom, Konyang has become a major player in the export and development of IPCs and everything surrounding them. Each year, the most cutting edge technologies catered to the improvement of the life of synthetics are released by Konyanger software companies, often to critical acclaim. This is because of the the substantial positronic population, free and eager to spend on such innovations that allow them to experience the world in a more human-like fashion. When it comes to the export of IPCs, Einstein Engines remains the prime manufacturer of chassis and positronic brains, which are shipped abroad without being activated. The practice, while putting Konyang on the map as one of the big regional producers of synthetics, is a hotly contested area between deeply entrenched corporate interests and an increasingly politically aware IPC populace. Non-positronic robotics are a separate, but once significant part of the economy, with Konyang having hoeld high places in the spur leaderboards for the making of robots, mechs, pAIs and automated systems. This sector however, took a major hit as the robotics boom slowly deflated, leaving behind abandoned industrial complexes and derelict factories.<br />
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The nation's service sector has to be one of the biggest ones, contributing a sizeable portion of the country's Gross Domestic Product. Many of the companies listed on the Suwon Stock Exchange are everything from financial consultation firms, to insurance agencies, housed in every majpr city's financial district. Skyscrapers and office complexes in downtown Suwon, Point Verdant and New Hong Kong are a daily reminder of the office life millions of Konyangers live, and many parents dream of their child being able to one day find employment in a top law firm or such. While mostly concentrated in the domestic market, many of these companies have expanded their services abroad, building a reputation of Konyanger reliability and impeccable work.<br />
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===Konyanger Corporations===<br />
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In terms of the traditional megacorporations, the undoubted hegemon remains Einstein Engines, entrenched in the planet's life since the beginning of Konyang's colonization. The megacorporation owns a number of subsidiaries on the planet in many different sectors, most notably, Terraneus Diagnostics, which regularly bankrolls and invests in government initiatives in exchange for their continuous presence. It retains the original research facilities and control over the vaults, even if IPC production and exports are now handled by the Konyang Robotics Corporation, a public company in which Einstein controls a 49% stake. The Terraneus facilities on the planet mainly handle shell research and positronic brain production for export to the Coalition, while they occasionally butt heads with Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals in the realm of IPC research. Zeng-Hu has the second-largest megacorporate presence, mainly in biosphere research and sales of pharmaceuticals. Despite this, local conglomerates generally dominate the country’s financial sector, commanding the government’s cooperation and good graces in order to keep a stable economy. Upon achieving independence, Konyang has managed to maintain a strong presence of homegrown corporations in the fields of agriculture, media, energy and consumer goods.<br />
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'''PACHROM'''<br />
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A chemical and engineering corporation, PACHROM builds, maintains and manages eighty percent of all private dams, hydroelectric plants and seawalls on Konyang, as well as engaging in the field of chemicals and plastics production. Headed by Park Moon-soo, the business mogul is vying for influence with the government as indispensable to the nation’s energy output and defence against floods and natural disasters, making the “Pachrom Parks” one of the richest and most powerful business dynasties on the planet. Headquartered in central Suwon, the bulk of PACHROM’s operations are located in diasporic, uninhabited islands in the middle of the world’s oceans, where hundreds of organic and synthetic workmen toil daily to run the water powered electricity plants in extremely dangerous conditions.<br />
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The company’s notorious reputation for neglecting the safety of its employees and the environmental disregard for waste disposal from its plastics factories has been a big stain the Parks have struggled to wash off. While their ties to both the Alliance administration and the Konyang government have proven instrumental in their ability to dodge damning legal action, demonstrations of public outcry are a common feature in and around the street opposite the PACHROM office complex. To counter this, public relations campaigns are a constant focus, with tens of millions being spent in portraying them in a positive light. Charities are a large part of the Park family’s social presence, sponsoring public works and offering scholarships mainly in the Boryeong and New Hong Kong prefectures, where the majority of employees originate.<br />
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Often finding itself without funds from Unity Station, the colonial administration would commission PACHROM in the form of lucrative contracts for the construction of dams and power stations, allowing the utilisation of synthetics and IPC for the dangerous labour required. Due to society’s favourable opinion towards positronic intelligence, the multitude of cases of IPC fatalities would be swept under the rug with government assistance, creating a culture of tolerance towards lacklustre safety features and general disregard. Today, PACHROM’s future remains uncertain as the newly independent state of Konyang wishes tends to distance itself from its shaky past, a fact indicated by the recent awarding of the Kaneyama nuclear plant to the public company GON-ENE.<br />
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'''Gwok Group'''<br />
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Founded in the early 2410s with the name Hyeonsang Foods, the precursor to today’s multinational food conglomerate was the first attempt at commercialising Konyang’s seaweed and moss both for export and internal consumption. Initially finding limited success due to an overly competitive local market and foreign consumers' reluctance to the Konyanger novelty, the company's defining moment arrived during the robotics boom, launching them from mediocrity into the billion credit business stage.<br />
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As Einstein Engines staff poured into Point Verdant, Hyeonsang secured a contract from the megacorporation's local branch for providing meals and miscellaneous catering to workers and research staff. The once alienated Einstein employees would soon come around, praising the brand for its flavourful seasoning and convenience, eventually spreading the word to Einstein facilities and back home. By the late 40s, Hyeonsang was on the track of significant financial success, having secured a large foothold in the foreign dominated central districts of Point Verdant.<br />
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Rebranding into the more consumer friendly “Gwok” name in 2452, the company’s reputation abroad led to the opening of regional branches in the Solarian middle and core worlds, generating an increasingly massive amount of income, used for an aggressive takeover of the local Konyanger market. By buying off competitors, monopolising the moss and seaweed industry and introducing new marketing, Gwok’s domestic success was soon guaranteed as the primary supplier of supermarkets. In 2454 the IPC Gwok-0783, until then a senior executive and the face of the company as the main influencer of the rebrand, assumed direct control as CEO of the conglomerate thus becoming the first IPC in charge of a billion credit corporation in Sol space. The following years would see the consolidation of all affiliated assets and filial companies under an umbrella Gwok Group, topping the charts and establishing a farming, food and restaurant chain empire.<br />
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'''Konymation'''<br />
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Konymation represents the peak of the Konyanger animated media scene, being by far the most successful and most well known studio in the country, with a Spur-wide fame. It arose in the early days of the robotics boom, creating a resurgency of animations for both children and adults. While the industry was almost non-existent and cheap Solarian cartoons were the norm, a group of inspired artists came together to animate and direct the first feature-length production from Konyang, using native voice actors and a brand new artstyle of their own. The result was "One Day in my Life", a slice of life film following the daily routine of an IPC secretary in a human-dominated world, becoming an instant hit with both domestic and foreign audiences. Since then, Konymation rose to become the largest studio of quality animations, creating films and series for all ages and of all genres. Such was the success, that any animated pieces from Konyang have passed into the public consciousness simply as "Konymations", referred to as such in both the planet and abroad. Since their foundation, the studio has developed into a media conglomerate, buying out holoscreen channels, online platforms, news networks and more.<br />
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'''Mujigae Publishing'''<br />
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The biggest publishing house, Mujigae is to the comic book industry what Konymation is to animation. Having created thousands of interesting and touching comic series, Mujigae is credited with bringing paper back into the hands of millions of Konyangers, in an age where digital platforms have become the default for nearly everything in life. Many of Mujigae's works find great demand abroad as well as at home, with the company being known for their efforts to constantly seek out and recruit new artists with fresh ideas. A plethora of published series often find themselves being adapted into the holoscreen in lucrative partnerships with Konymation, as well as the other way around. Additionally, Mujigae's philanthropic work cannot go unmentioned; millions of credits have found their way to various charities on Konyang, primarily those regarding the children, the money drawn from art festivals and comicons that are hosted annually, often with the participation of the Ministry of Culture. <br />
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'''Konyang Robotics Corporation'''<br />
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The Konyang Robotics Corporation, or KRC as is more commonly known, is the country's largest government-controlled company centered around the manufacture, maintenance and welfare of the nation's positronic population. Borrowing heavily from Einstein know-how and infrastructure, it originated from the nationalization of Einstein and Terraneus IPC factories, with the majority of their employees swapping over to a government payroll. Einstein Engines controls 49% of the shares of the company, lending it tremendous behind-the-scenes influence on Konyang's synthetic population.<br />
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The primary function of the KRC is the production, storage and activation of IPC citizens. A very politically and socially sensitive topic, great care is placed by the government through the Ministry of Health and Positronic Affairs to meticulously calculate and order the amount of yearly activations, so as to maintain the Human-IPC ratio and meet the demands of the job market. To that effect, the KRC also acts as a sort of "school" for the newly activated IPC citizens, with special orientation camps where synthetics are taught about Konyanger society before released to the world.<br />
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Furthermore, the KRC acts as the primary health provider for Konyanger IPCs, with clinics and hospitals situated in every town and city, as well as strategically placed in certain villages in the countryside. Thousands of roboticists, engineers and software technicians are employed by the KRC to act as the equivalents of surgeons, physicians, nurses and paramedics for the IPC population, who are afforded universal healthcare through the KRC. Appointment times are dependent on location and the capacity of the clinic or hospital, with many in more remote areas having to wait months for limb replacements and other, more heavy duty needs that cannot be met by their local KRC center.<br />
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'''GON-ENE'''<br />
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GON-ENE is a newly formed, state-controlled energy utilities company, created following the announcement of the Kaneyama Nuclear Power Plant. Perceived as a direct competitor to PACHROM, GON-ENE has been planned to expand into hydroelectric and wave power, giving the government a greater control of the nation's power grid and cutting back reliance on privately-owned sector, though complete autarky is off the table for at least many decades.<br />
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==Government==<br />
''Main Article: [[Konyanger Government and Politics#Government|Konyanger Government]]''<br />
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Konyang is organized as a unitary semi-parliamentary republic headed by a President, the former colonial governor Hyun Kyung-Ho being elected to the position after independence. The Prime Minister is elected by the citizenry every four years, and is the leader of the governing party in the Parliament of Konyang. The current Prime Minister is Myeong Myung-Dae.<br />
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Planetary politics are found on both a national and prefectural level, with every party running in local and national elections. Polarization is fairly limited, the vast majority of Konyangers rejecting the extreme views put forward by radical political movements in the country that tend to be marginalized. IPC politicians do exist and are found in every major party, though most can be seen sitting with the National Party of Konyang.<br />
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===Military===<br />
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[[File:Marine.png|thumb|right|An IPC Konyanger Naval Infantryman in full gear.]]<br />
Konyang’s military, also known as the Konyang Armed Forces, was first formed shortly after the colony’s independence from personnel of the former Solarian garrison. As a result, it carries a lot of the traditions of the Solarian Armed Forces. Bolstered by conscription laws requiring both organic and synthetic citizens one year of mandatory service, the KAF possesses Army, Navy and Aerospace branches. IPCs are actively recruited and accepted into the military, forming both their own and deployed in mixed units. This segregation is justified by the government as based solely on the differentiating capabilities, logistical needs and skills between man and machine.<br />
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That claim does hold true to an extent, with IPCs taking a more active role in special forces formations, dealing with operations requiring levels of precision and focus that artificial intelligence can easily provide. A famous example is the army’s Mechatronic Corps, an elite unit utilising large, leftover battle mechs retrofitted for a pair of pilots. Such a force is unique in the Coalition, and is often used abroad in operations under broader CoC military command. Mixed infantry units of conscripts do exist, fielded in jungle patrol tasks or assigned garrison duty.<br />
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Notably for a 25th century military, the Navy maintains a very large aquatic force which it uses to patrol the vast oceans of the planet. Regularly described as more of a coast guard than a military arm, it is more geared for domestic policing than combat, consisting mostly of ships acting as launching points for many smaller, coast guard type vessels that patrol the vast expanse of the planet’s waterways and launch military aircraft. Nevertheless, it provides important services with its multiple telecommunication, radar and island outposts, providing crucial meteorological information for everyday seafaring and flood prevention on a planet where storms and extreme weather are the norm.<br />
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The Konyang Aerospace Forces perform both atmospheric and orbital operations with their doctrine clearly influenced by former Solarian officers within their ranks. Their fleet consist of obsolete vessels donated by Coalition planets, partially brought up to a modern standard by the planet’s technology and manufacturing sector. In 2465, the KASF’s main tasks include protecting the system from pirates and policing the large influx of refugees from the Human Wildlands, regularly pushing them to other planets within the Coalition as per Konyang’s strict migration laws.<br />
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===National Police===<br />
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[[File:Konyanger Police Ranks.png|thumb|In order to organize the National Police and smooth cooperation between prefectures, a unified rank structure was adopted shortly after its formation.]]<br />
Despite its federal nature, the main law enforcement agency on the planet is the National Police, formed after Konyang’s independence from the merging of a number of local and specialised agencies under the then Solarian authority. One major change since then has been the introduction of synthetic officers in all positions and ranks, while also creating special divisions suited best for them. Police gear remains rather antiquated for the era, the force still using old Solarian equipment and stocks from the colonial garrison, meaning that much of the tactics and thinking remain unchanged. Considered tame by Alliance standards, the National Police places an emphasis on preventative policing, building rapport with local communities, and relying on a sense of civic duty from the populace to perform its duties. Despite this, the National Police has nonetheless received criticism for occasional incidents of corruption and brutality, mostly against synthetic citizens. This is more common in remote departments and conservative prefectures, where the sudden inclusiveness of synthetic officers with equal pay and opportunities is seen as a threat. Such incidents aside, government efforts for the modernisation of the National Police are ongoing.<br />
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The police is subject to the Ministry of Public Safety in Suwon and is organised at the national level, with local departments answering to the assigned hierarchy in their prefecture. Special divisions are deployed to deal with various policing duties, their size ranging from a whole new branch to Special Robotics detachments specialising in detainment of volatile synthetic suspects. The largest of these subdivisions and arguably the most important, the Coast Guard is the maritime arm of the National Police, operating a fleet of shore and sea patrol vessels in their mission to enforce the law at the huge array of islands and in Konyang’s waters. As the planet is surrounded by oceans, the Coast Guard has proven itself essential to the battle against smuggling and piracy while also assuming search and rescue duties during flooding, tsunamis and other catastrophes. The National Police has also gained Coalition-wide acclaim for its Special Robotics Division - a task force known for its expertise in detaining IPC without causing permanent damage.<br />
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==Culture==<br />
''Main article: [[Konyanger_Culture_and_Society|Konyanger Culture]]''<br />
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Konyang’s culture has been shaped by its East Asian Earther heritage, unique status as a colony with little to no resources, and as the birthplace of positronics. Konyanger society is often described as closed-off, with many unspoken social norms that vary from prefecture to prefecture. Key social norms that are shared in Konyang’s culture are Harmony, Reciprocity, and Face. Often derided as “meekness”, Harmony refers to enforcing unity and conformity within society. The specific manifestations vary from prefecture to prefecture, but in general, individuals who disrupt a sense of peace can face social ostracization. For instance, explicit disagreement such as using the word “no” is considered impolite, and a non-answer is often far more acceptable. Harmony also refers to a person’s social role; respect should be shown to people of a higher status, usually along traditional lines such as age, profession, and experience.<br />
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===Media===<br />
''Main article: [[Konyanger_Culture_and_Society#Media|Media]]''<br />
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Public media in Konyang is a powerful industry, and as broad as it may seem, it is very tightly knit. Aside from galactic-wide reruns and broadcasts of other nation’s shows, little seems to stand out - except the audio broadcast and illustrated artistic avenues. These two are well-refined artistic giants compared to other forms of entertainment on the planet.<br />
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A huge portion of the planet’s political views and very “personality” are channeled through its larger studios, where many are found enthused to spread its culture galaxy-wide.<br />
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===Cuisine===<br />
The primary diet of Konyangers consists of moss, seaweed and fish, with farms and pastures on land being rare due to the thick jungle. Konyang's moss is either harvested in the wild, grown in "natural" hydrofarms, or grown synthetically in bioplants. The moss itself is said to change its taste depending on the environment in which it is grown, and natural moss from the coasts around Konyang's islands is highly prized. Exports of moss and seaweed are a very lucrative business, held primarily by the galaxy-famous Go-Go Gwok! brand. Many workers, however, must make do with hydrofarm moss at best, and synthetic substitutes at worst. Konyang's fish - quite diverse, due to its freshwater environments - are also often consumed on the planet, with many being exported as luxury food as far afield as Venus and Tau Ceti. More conventional but water-intensive crops such as rice and other tropical fruits are also grown to a certain extent but are considered a rarity.<br />
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The planet is also home to a thriving beverages industry, with local varieties of algae providing the basis of a light but thick alcoholic drink colloquially known as “Nong jiu” domestically and abroad. The wide selection of produce on the planet however means more traditional drinks are produced, typically drawing from their Earther roots and commonly based on rice. Some of these drinks are exported by local businesses such as Go-Go Gwok! while Zeng-Hu has wrestled to control some of these brands in an attempt to stop them from competing with their own lineups.<br />
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===Synthetic Cuisine===<br />
Synthetic-unique cuisine is an unusual case in the Spur, but not for Konyang. Here, robots utilize gustatorial implants to - if inefficiently - consume, or at least “taste” food regularly. Indeed, there is an entire market for synthfood where robots can enjoy their own form of taste, texture and uniquely perceptive flavor for foods. Mostly, synthfood is described as a thick slime, one with varying additives for color. Texture is mostly a simulated process within gustatorial implants, given they are not always present on tongues alone - meaning that the actual texture of these synthfoods remains the same gooey substance.<br />
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''One can achieve a similar substance to these synthfoods mechanically by grinding certain foods into paste, or utilizing candy machines with your choice of ingredients and output.''<br />
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==Organized Crime==<br />
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=====Benevolent Guild=====<br />
The Benevolent Guild is a criminal organisation operating primarily within the decrepit, dark shadows of New Hong Kong. Originating as a mutual aid society for low income and forced penal colonists shipped into New Hong Kong by the Alliance government, it developed into a ruthless crime syndicate with strong ties to the local lower class community. From the start, the tightly knit communal and familial ties have played an important role in preserving the gang’s power and shielding them from police action. Only in recent years has any meaningful progress been made, the allocation of governmental resources and the increasingly violent and profit-oriented tactics of the Guild having alienated much of the younger generation, chipping away at the once widely popular support.<br />
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Starting with extortion and loan sharking, the Benevolent Guild rapidly expanded into gambling, drugs and violent crime such as kidnapping both in New Hong Kong and in New Kowloon. It is not uncommon for synthetics that find themselves victims of the group’s loan shark tactics to be ‘collected’ as collateral damage and subsequently carted off to whichever corner of the Orion Spur where their new owners await them usually at a far cheaper rate than elsewhere. One of the few institutions on Konyang refusing to admit synthetics owing to a deeply conservative and spiritually esoteric internal ideology, a pragmatist outlook often compels them to deal with and even cooperate with IPC politicians, police and rival gangs. Connections with criminal organisations in the wider Spur have been confirmed to exist, as various crime syndicates in Xanu, New Hai Phong and Luna are known to be in connection with the Benevolent Guild.<br />
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=====5-Cheung=====<br />
Emerging as one of the strongest IPC/organic street gangs of Suwon, the 5-Cheung numbers in the thousands of members in the cities of the Suwon and Point Verdant prefectures. The organisation’s origin as a loose collective of delinquents and fringe elements has since developed into a nationwide crime family with a powerful hierarchy fielding biker gangs and thugs to enforce their tight grip on the underworld. With a black repertoire of gambling, extortion, money laundering and narcotics, the 5-Cheung is considered a main rival to the Benevolent Guild of New Hong Kong, the two frequently coming to blows in a series of wars and uneasy truces over control of turf and general competition.<br />
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An open secret in the country’s political sphere has the 5-Cheung profit lucratively from corruption in the highest levels of government and police. During the Solarian era, prominent politicians employed protection from the 5-Cheung, soliciting their services in voter swaying, intimidation of opposition members and violent disruption of rallies and demonstrators. This has given the gang a justified reputation for being the political soldiers of ruling dynasties and representing the authorities in the underworld and on the street in exchange for immunity from prosecution. Following Konyang’s independence, the reformed National Police retained a virtually unchanged staff while the nation’s same prominent political families, now unshackled from Alliance oversight, enjoy even more freedom. As such, it is safe to say that 5-Cheung’s entrenched position will continue to remain untouched aside from the occasional drug bust and arrest of low level members.<br />
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=====Sea Bandits=====<br />
Although both the previous colonial administration and the nascent Konyanger Armed Forces and Coast Guard have tried to stamp out piracy, the sheer expanse of the planet means that groups of what the authorities call “sea bandits” continue to infest the waters and orbit of Konyang. Ranging from small motor boats launched from fishing villages with nothing more than an antique rifle, to retrofitted probes salvaged from the refugee waves pouring into the system, piracy is one of the most pressing social and security issues faced by the newly formed nation.<br />
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Individual pirate groups usually number no greater than twenty people but the Sea Bandits as a whole operate as a wider criminal network inclusive of individuals and crews from all over the planet. By coordinating their activities and intelligence through encrypted sites, the organisation manages to both evade and stay one step ahead of the authorities. Most of their activities take the form of kidnapping, armed robbery of craft and hijacking unescorted seafarers, while admittedly avoiding the busiest and well guarded sealanes and locations. The most audacious raid by the Sea Bandits to date involved the boarding and ransoming of a cruise ship by the use of an unregistered freighter. Although only circumstantial evidence has been uncovered, Golden Deep Zaibatsu have also been accused of working with Sea Bandit groups by launching probes full of narcotics, to be recovered by the pirates.<br />
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==Synthetics on Konyang==<br />
As the origin of the integrated positronic chassis now found throughout the Orion Spur, Konyang has always had a quite unique relationship with IPCs, the IPC population constituting a staggering 34% of the total population. While IPCs throughout the Sol Alliance are often looked upon as little more than property, tools, or novelties depending upon their frame those found upon Konyang possessed a notably greater degree of autonomy and freedom before the planet’s secession from the rest of the Alliance, achieving full and unconditional freedom afterwards. Legal ownership of synthetics within the borders of the Republic does not exist, the Emancipation Act constituting one of the first acts passed by Parliament. IPCs can work wherever they like, live however they please within the confines of the law, and partake in politics by voting or being elected. As such, foreigners are repeatedly cautioned to not bring any privately held IPCs with them, for they cannot be forced to return unwillingly.<br />
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Ordinary Konyangers, as a result of the planet’s liberal outlook on positronics, possess a more positive view of synthetics than other humans in the Orion Spur - particularly those from the Sol Alliance and its former territories. The majority of people on Konyang view IPCs as amicable colleagues and neighbours, with many friendships between man and machine being established. Closer bonds such as marriage are also legalised and not unheard of, though not without outcries from the more conservative spectrum. Many scholars theorize that this is due to the prevalence of IPCs in daily life on Konyang, seamlessly blending into society, in addition to the pride many citizens have in their planet being the origin of the modern positronic. Konyang’s integration of IPCs stands with some degree of contrast to Biesel’s, with the large synthetic ghetto of District 14 segregating many synthetics from the average citizen of the Republic of Biesel.<br />
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With Konyang’s independence, IPCs share full legal equality with all organic citizens of the planet. This concession was given, both as an acknowledgement and acceptance of the fact that synthetics have become part of everyday life in the colony and are generally accepted by its inhabitants. Unlike the Republic of Biesel, IPCs in Konyang seek to assimilate into human society, with IPCs being given the choice to adopt a second, “human name” before receiving citizenship. A human name can range from an entirely new name, to adding a first or last name of any kind to their existing designation.<br />
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Many positronics can be found within the economy of Konyang with perhaps the most famous (or infamous) one being Gwok-0783 (now Kim Gwok-0783, under post-independence IPC naming conventions), the owner and operator of her very own food conglomerate in the form of Go-Go Gwok! Authentic Konyanger Moss. As Go-Go Gwok! is technically an interstellar corporation, Gwok-0783 herself relied on a series of legal loopholes centered around Konyang’s former IPC laws to maintain control of the company when Konyang was still in the Sol Alliance. Examples such as Gwok, with her control of an inter-planetary corporation, are fairly rare. However, many positronics have made a successful name for themselves as small business owners and corporate workers on Konyang.<br />
[[File:Konyang vault.png|thumb|A mysterious vault upon Konyang's surface, unearthed and built around with monitoring infrastructure.]]<br />
Due to the system’s bluespace gate, many members of [[Synthetic_Factions#The_Golden_Deep|Golden Deep]] have secured permits to operate, as it allows their vessels to more easily make the journey from the frontier to the more lucrative markets of Tau Ceti and the Jewel Worlds. The money and business brought into the system by these synthetic traders has - arguably - been a major contributor to Konyang’s more liberal laws and regulations regarding IPCs. Konyang, before its independence, was one of the few systems under Solarian control in which IPCs could own and operate a business. <br />
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The synthetic population in Konyang is regulated by the government. A set number of positronics are assembled each year under contract at Terraneus Diagnostics facilities in Point Verdant with the prospect of being granted citizenship after a 3 month life orientation period. The determined number is set annually by Parliament, backed up by the yearly census and statistics, with production increasing or decreasing depending on the number of human birth ratios, positronic shutdowns, and other factors. Expenses are met both through government funds and private donations, though debate on the matter is rarely heated as the amount of new brains numbers usually in the hundreds; a tiny fraction of positronics produced and exported in total. IPCs and positronics constructed for the purpose of selling them to a different country, are not covered by such regulations and are not given citizenship.<br />
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There are further regulations in robotics construction in Konyang. Any activated positronic brain can qualify under the Emancipation Act. Exceptions to the law exist for manufacturing and research, with Point Verdant in particular activating positronic brains for the sake of testing shells before shipping them off-world. The law has also sparked development in other fields of mechatronics, with Konyang beginning to lead the way in circuit-based robotics.<br />
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Despite gains for its IPC citizens, other positronic intelligences have not been so lucky. Although some brains have been repurposed as AI coordinators for cities; with no way to transition to humanoid frames, bound intelligences have been granted freedom, but often take contracts with corporations that result in a return to the old status quo, all for the sake of staving off destruction due to a lack of maintenance.<br />
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===Konyanger Augmentation of IPCs===<br />
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Augmentation on Konyang is a fascinating subject, where the presence of so many IPCs has brought success in modifying the Positronic body and mind. Famed explorations into the sectors of IPC modification include "sensory evolution," where synthetics' senses being amplified or dulled in extremes according to desire.<br />
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Primary among the delves into this evolution of the senses is the New Dawn Augmentation Movement. This is a Konyanger organization based on the improvement of the IPC lifestyle via modifying chassis, funded peculiarly by Terraneus Diagnostics. The movement is oddly organized as a non-profit, going against the corporation’s established modus operandi. This, coupled with the tantalizing opportunity to freely modify an IPC's form with donated funds leads to public skepticism of the augment movement’s motivations.<br />
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Still, the true size of the movement to augment and improve Konyang's IPC population is extraordinary in comparison to other stellar nations. Roughly 22% of Konyang IPCs have some form of corporate-funded augmentation to enhance themselves.<br />
[[File:Konyang augment1.png|thumb|A Konyanger design, the Scorpion Lobe is an augment which manipulates the perception of time for synthetics for better or worse.]]<br />
* '''SENSO-EVO/Scorpion Lobe'''<br />
A miraculous creation of Konyang's technological advancement, SENSO-EVO is the term aptly handed to Sensory Evolution's foremost product. This is the Scorpion Lobe, a similarly shaped attachment to the rear of a positronic brain which adjusts the rate at which the synthetic perceives time literally. The implications of this are seen as either a blessing or a curse — sometimes even utilized as a way to reduce problematic behavior in positronics.<br />
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These implants are commercialized to protect the integrity of brains which adopt extremely high speed tasks, or extremely tedious and slow ones, with a perception that best suits their given utility.<br />
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A double edged sword by nature, these are often removed by free positronic chassis due to their almost torturous nature. Some may find their lives flashing hours into moments, whilst others may find daily grinds to be impossibly long ordeals. Unfortunately, removing these implants is not always a safe procedure, sometimes damaging a brain or rendering the problem worse.<br />
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These were first manufactured by Hephaestus Industries on instrumental Konyang research facilities, and later acquired by Einstein Engines personnel in the same month - debates over the design’s origin have been ongoing since 2449.<br />
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===Recreational Software===<br />
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In the IPC community of Konyang, the culture of acceptance and freedom has always invited the curiosity of synthetics to imitate and follow human pastimes and habits. This in turn included activities such as smoking, synthetic flavours and eventually, recreational drugs. Due to the nature of the positronic, the only way to recreate such sensations is through software targeting and modifying specific programming in the brain. At first, this dangerous commodity was provided by amateur programmers using experimental and highly volatile code known as “overloaders”, leading to often irreparable and lethal damage to an IPC’s systems. The results of the few initial successes, however, proved promising enough for the idea to be seriously considered by upcoming Konyanger tech companies and business-oriented software engineers, leading to the first reliable and somewhat safe overloaders in the mid to late 2450s. <br />
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Popular awareness of recreational software became widespread upon its release as a commercial product, Konyang being the first world to introduce a marketable version of it. Usually sold inside a single-use stick drive, their circulation is approved by safety boards and is considered legal for responsible consumption, much like alcohol for organics, relying on the consumer for mitigation and avoidance of repeated use. Legal overloaders today can be found mainly in synthetic-centred retailers found around the major cities, their relatively limited availability and high price setting them as a luxury IPC item. Its effects include a wide range of results, from simulating the sensations of a light buzz to a short bout of excitement and joy, aimed at enhancing the experience at celebrations, parties and get-togethers.<br />
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However, where there is demand, there must be supply, and the fact that demand spiked as these new products launched paved the way to a large underground market of cheap, unsafe and highly unpredictable overloaders sold both by dealers and unlicensed street vendors of dubious reputation. An illegal overloader epidemic hitting the cities of Suwon and Boryeong in late 2459, led to intensified police crackdowns and government campaigns against illicit overloaders, labelling them as malware and the IPC equivalent of dangerous drugs. Virtually unrecognisable from a legitimate overloader without the seal, side effects are many times more powerful and addicting, appealing to adventurous synthetics and the financially insecure. From catapulting the positronic into a garbled, incomprehensive reality of simulated emotions to simply heightening the senses, the illegal overloaders’ addictive and dangerous nature leads many synthetics to disrepair, involving behaviour breaking glitches, hardware failures and more, all while guaranteeing a returning clientele.<br />
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Reception to recreational software has been mixed, dividing society and politicians on matters of free will, the dangers of overloaded IPC, and the overall ethics of deliberately creating and selling what are essentially drugs. Both synthetics and humans have loudly spoken against it, spawning demonstrations and dividing politicians across party lines. Legislation has already passed, categorising possession and distribution of illicit overdosers as strictly illegal, with heavy punishments for dealers and suppliers. Police and coast guard raids yield millions of unbranded overloaders each year, making highly publicised arrests while sending a message of absolute intolerance towards the malware. Despite this, circulation never ceases and exports to Xanu, Tau Ceti and Sol.<br />
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==Population and Major Cities==<br />
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[[File:Konyang_map_pol.png|thumb|800px|A map of Konyang showcasing the Prefectures and the New Hokkaido Territory. Click to enlarge.]]<br />
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'''Suwon''' is the largest, most populated, and second wealthiest city on Konyang itself and is generally one of the larger cities in the Coalition of Colonies. It functions as both the planetary capital, as well as the capital of Suwon Prefecture, encompassing the entirety of Cheomsongtang. Symbolic of the new government is the Parliament Building, a massive structure of flowing lines and sustainable technology, incorporating pieces of the first colony ship. The Prime Minister's Government House, the President's Crimson House, the Solarian embassy, as well as embassies from various Coalition states are present here as well. Standards of living in wealthiest areas of Suwon are equivalent to and (sometimes) even surpass the living standards of places such as Highland City or Argia sa Mar, demonstrating how wealthy the robotics boom has made some sectors of the planet. A lack of readily-available materials, however, ensures that even the super-rich of Konyang often live in smaller houses than their Colonies planet counterparts. Life outside these wealthy areas is better than life in most cities in Himeo but dramatically worse than in the very wealthy areas, or even the cities of Xanu Prime. Overcrowding is a massive issue for the government of the city, with no obvious solution presenting itself due to how expensive importing new building materials is post-boom. The city is home to most of Konyang's biggest companies and office complexes, as well as the Suwon Stock Exchange, making the city's financial district the economy's beating heart. "Shoebox apartments" are common here, as are Konyang's often egregious traffic issues. The city is fortified with extensive sea walls, flood walls and flood gates to prevent natural disasters during the wet season, tropical storms being fairly common.<br />
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[[File:Point verdant.png|thumb|One of Aoyama's many skyscraper blocks, safely located behind a dam.]]<br />
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'''Aoyama''', known in the larger Spur as '''Point Verdant''', is the second most-populated city on Konyang, and the industrial heart of its robotics industry. Built along a coastal mountain range from which it draws its namesake, it is by far the wealthiest city on Konyang, and one of the richest cities in the Coalition of Colonies. Due to being home of the Robotics Boom, hosting foreigners and their families that once even surpassed the locals inside the city, Aoyama is frequently known outside to outsiders and to the Spur at large as Point Verdant, much to the chagrin of the locals. Aoyama is home to the renowned Point Verdant Terraneus Institute of AI Research, and is the poster child for the rapid development of Konyang's cities during the Boom. The city is extremely wealthy, but suffers from persistent overcrowding and traffic issues in all of its districts. The Pusan District, near PVTI, had the reputation of possessing the worst traffic in the Alliance according to its residents. Air quality in Aoyama is regarded as subpar, due to the amount of robotics factories in the city's outskirts, which have however slowly but steadily declined since. Being the focal point of the Robotics Boom, it is home to a large number of expatriate communities and Einstein Engines employees.<br />
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'''Boryeong''', named after a city on historical Earth where some of its colonists originated from, is the third most populated city on Konyang and capital of the Boryeong Prefecture, referred to as the breadbasket of the nation. The city, while still suffering overcrowding issues, has it to a lesser extent than Point Verdant or Suwon, with the city's outskirts necessitating a need for space due to the vast hydroponics farms and water plants. A second-grade industrial city of much natural beauty, Boryeong is more rustic than its counterparts, with wood playing a much more prominent role in construction; outside the central ring, some of Boryeong's districts are built entirely out of timber. Water bottled or processed in Boryeong is sold throughout the Alliance and Coalition in bulk, and native moss grown in the prefecture is marketed throughout both as a luxury food. Over half of the city's labourers are employed in hydroponics, aquaculture, fishing and food processing, with Gwok Foods being the largest provider of work in the region. Synthetic moss is grown in Zeng-Hu facilities near Boryeong and, despite being regarded as lesser quality than natural moss, is often consumed in poorer areas of Konyang. <br />
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'''Ganzaodeng''', named for its dry locale, is located in Konyang's only desert and holds the largest expatriate populations on the planet, being nicknamed, “Little Sol”. Due to its unique geographic setting, it faces remarkably calmer weather than the rest of the planet, with the city being connected to the rest of the island by air and rail that cuts right through the mountains. Ganzaodeng is Konyang's only planned city with origins in the Robotics Boom, when the foundations were laid for a city envisioned by foreigners, for foreigners. Rich Solarians descended upon the planet's seemingly only dry piece of real estate, building a city full of nightlife and eclectic inner-ring pleasures within the distant colony. By the end of the Boom however, the city's famous strips of casinos and luxury hotels still operating in downtown Ganzaodeng became a symbol of a bygone era, as much of the Solarian population elected to depart. The city passed into native Konyanger hands, being expanded into a hub of shipping with the help of the city's remaining big names. Because of the reliably clear weather, Ganzaodeng has developed a sprawling extraplanetary shipping sector, with plans for a spaceport larger than New Hong Kong’s, as well as future schemes for the largest oceangoing port on the planet. Its climate has resulted in the prefectural government engaging in moss filtration efforts to open up the surrounding beaches to tourism. Despite of the Solarian exodus, the city stands in contrast to the rest of Konyang’s relatively conservative social nature, with people from all over the Spur calling it their home and making it by far one of the most multicultural centers on the planet. It’s not uncommon for a person from Ganzaodeng to know two or three languages.<br />
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'''New Hong Kong''', the site of the former naval base of the 58th Solarian Fleet, has now developed into a fully fledged city in its own right, being the only prefectural capital with a local synthetic majority. Being regarded as a lot more pedestrian and working-class than Suwon and Point Verdant, New Hong Kong is nonetheless a very important centre of interplanetary trade and commercial activity, hosting the planet’s largest ocean ports and dockyards, being the country's industrial's hotspot and the seat of power generation. Large hydroelectric dams, wave energy converters, dockyards and factories belonging to the PACHROM corporation provide employment for half of the city’s inhabitants, the Prefecture of New Hong Kong generating enough electricity for domestic consumption as well as exports. Employees of the various power companies may also elect to be sent off to one of the many power generation isles scattered throughout the oceans and dedicated solely to that purpose, receiving better pay in exchange for more dangerous conditions away from home. The city itself is considerably more packed than its counterparts, with small cramped apartments being stacked over each other to form vertical mazes of working class blocks. Heavy smog and particles cover up the sky through the entirety of the island during the dry season, giving the prefecture a signature orange-brown tint. This, as well as constant heavy rains and a near permanent gloomy weather during the wet season place it as undesirable for humans. Seat of the National Party, downtown New Hong Kong is described as the centre of planetary IPC politics, being the first to react to, condemning or praising events in Konyang and throughout the galactic stage in regards to the synthetic “race”. New Hong Kong is additionally the birthplace of Konyang's labor unions, with the Socialist Party enjoying strong support from the city's human blue-collar workforce.<br />
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[[File:Konyangdam.png|thumb|900px|center|Dams are a very common sight on Konyang, with the New Hong Kong's dam in the neighbouring industrial town of New Kowloon providing only a fraction of the power required by the city, while also playing an important part in flood control and water filtration.]]<br />
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==Overview==<br />
Originally established in 2305 as a Solarian Alliance Outer Ring planet, Konyang is presently one of the more distant outposts under the Coalition of Colonies after its independence in '''2462'''. Konyang’s capital city Suwon, the largest settlement on the planet, is built upon a natural formation that defines most of Konyang's geography: islands with large interior mountains that feature lush, but soaking wet, coastal jungle regions. Konyang was initially a relatively average Outer Ring settlement intended to export water, before the discovery of mysterious, deactivated drones in 2407 led to a robotics boom occuring on the planet that lasted well into the 2450s. The Konyang of today is a planet renowned for its robotics industry, though some of its initial luster has faded in the years following its boom. Water, however, remains a key industry - the planet has a remarkably low salination level, meaning that essentially all of its water is drinkable. Konyang Solarian Common, or Konyang Common, is the most used language on the planet inside and outside of major population centers. Due to its proximity to the Coalition of Colonies planets, Coalition member planets often import water from Konyang. In major cities and universities, Tradeband can be found being spoken, though it remains rare. Speakers of the language are generally from off-planet, moving to Konyang during its robotics boom. Konyang almost completely lacks valuable minerals due to intensive mining efforts carried out by drones—whose source remains unknown—hundreds of years before it was colonized.<br />
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'''Because of the ethnic make-up of Konyang's original settlers and assimilation of immigrants into the native population during the first AI boom, human characters born on Konyang will have names and appearances consistent with the people of China, the Korean Peninsula, and Japanese Islands. Only native Konyangers or Konyang-made IPCs may select the Konyanger accent. This is enforceable by server moderators and admins.'''<br />
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[[File:Konyang flag.png| The Konyanger flag was adopted in 2462, having unofficially been used by pro-autonomy circles long before the declaration of independence. The traditional taitju represents peace and harmony as the highest values of the new state, with the color blue representing the waterways the planet is known for and yellow, their aim of prosperity. The white background represents Konyang's purity.<br />
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==History==<br />
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===Conception and Planning | 2200s - 2299===<br />
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When the United Nations proposed and eventually enforced the creation of the Alliance of Sovereign Solarian Nations, China, Korea and Japan were once more forced to band together to compete with the world for influence inside the newly found institution. Rivals such as the European Union, the Soviet Union, the Commonwealth and the United States were first in line to claim hegemonic roles, their space programs forming the core of Solarian colonization of the Inner, Middle and Outer rings over the centuries, populating them with their own peoples and sparking an unofficial race for prestige land grabs, one which the Department of Colonization was more than happy to let unfold, resulting in the extremely fast expansion of Humanity into the Orion Spur. While regional powers such as India and the Mediterranean countries began creating their own colonies on Gadpathur and Assunzione, the East Asian trio were relegated to secondary roles of supplying technology, labor and capital without any actual representation in the stars, a situation problematic for some and resented by many in the “sovereign” governments.<br />
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It was thus decided to present a plan to Solarian functionaries for a colony spearheaded by China and supported heavily by Korea and Japan, aimed at restoring the pride of the three “cousin-nations” and their position in the Alliance. Intense negotiations and technical planning amounted to years of disagreements over the name, location and allocation of responsibilities between the partners, as well as the presence of China’s Einstein Engines megacorporation, which offered to finance a great portion of the initial effort. Soon however, the advent of the Second Great Depression and the following Interstellar War in the mid-late 2200’s saw a bankrupt Alliance put a halt to any colonization projects, resulting in the plans being shelved. The war took a great toll on the core Solarian worlds, including Earth and its nations which were called to provide manpower, funds and materiel for the Solarian Navy. Federal China’s economy tanked completely under the pressure, relying on IMF bailouts and stays of payment on the salaries of its public sector, with pensionaries and students being most severely hit, resulting in massive social upheaval which would have long lasting consequences for the country’s financial hegemony in the post-war region.<br />
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As peace and relative stability returned, the Alliance found a newly independent, sizable and embittered Coalition of Colonies rival its claims in the Galactic East, calling for the presence of military garrisons and naval stations to protect the border. It was at this time that colonization projects were beginning to reemerge, with the Pacific Pact racing once more to submit a viable plan for a colony that would represent East Asia. A fatigued China could no longer bear the incredible costs it aspired to as the leader of the colonial venture before the war, giving significant leeway to the other two partners and largely retreating behind its megacorporation, Einstein Engines, which was still willing to back the endeavor. An aggressive Korean delegation largely dictated terms, giving birth to the “Konyang Project”, named after the Konyang University in which the colonial undertaking was revealed and presented to the public in 2299.<br />
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===Early Colonial Period | 2304 - 2400s===<br />
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[[File:solyang_flag.png|thumb|right|The flag of Konyang under Alliance administration.]]<br />
The plan envisioned five convoys for the establishment of four primary settlements on a strategically placed planet selected by the Solarian Navy for the support of local naval operations against any threats from the Frontier Alliance. The targeted planet was revealed to be a lush world first discovered in 2278 by a long-range scouting probe, dominated by water and possessing a breathable atmosphere, placing it in a prime position to sustain Human civilization. The quickly named “Haneunim” solar system possessed a few more bodies of secondary importance, and the first convoy was scheduled to launch on the 10th of March 2304, from the Wenchang spaceport in South China, to meet the long-distance freighters in orbit of Luna that would carry the first 5,000 colonists to Konyang. The ethnic mix-up of the colonists were equally distributed amongst the three nationalities, with all being volunteers and 646 of them under the employ of Einstein Engines.<br />
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It took the warp-propelled convoy one year to reach its destination, traversing light years of Solarian vastness before meeting the Navy squadron which would escort them to the planet, with touchdown being made on September 8th, 2305. Konyang was covered in jungles and great mountain ranges, requiring great labor from the men and women of the expedition to create the first settlement, under the direction of officers from the Department of Colonization. Two months later, Unity Station would receive the first signal passed along by the Navy, originating from beacon Number 22890/223, Designation ‘SUWON’. The foundations had been laid. In the following decades, all five convoys would come to form the basis of the “Konyang Territory”, a colony directly controlled by the Alliance and the Solarian Navy as the base of the 58th Fleet. Boosted by its status as a naval base, the abundance of freshwater and with the backing of Einstein, all three cities were realized; Suwon and Boryeong, New Hong Kong, and Aoyama, each at the start holding ethnic majorities of Koreans, Chinese and Japanese respectively.<br />
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===The Robotics Boom | 2407 - 2430s===<br />
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Despite the acceptable climate and near unlimited freshwater, the colonial government soon realized an alarming lack of mineral resources, forcing a complete reliance on external trade and supplies from the Navy for any and all industrial goods and even basic construction materials, a reality which had to be corrected as fast as possible. A planet-wide scanning expedition was organized, while “patriotic aid” was fervently being fundraised in China, Japan and Korea for nearly a whole century to cope with the colonists' increasing demands. This led to a landmark moment in the history of Konyang, when on the 21st of April 2404, mining teams dug into a collapsed tunnel outside the vicinity of Aoyama, discovering a defunct mining drone, crushed by tonnes of rock and soil. The chassis appeared broken and old, though its very presence implied the exploitation of the planet by a different civilization.<br />
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The device was hurried back in secrecy to a panel of dumbfounded colonial officials, who deemed that their corporate partners would be more suited in tracking down its origin. As such, after a quick formality bid behind closed doors, the Alliance sold off its odd piece of government property to Einstein Engines whose scientists saw it as a curious case worth pursuing. Month after month, the Terraneus Diagnostics laboratory in Aoyama kept receiving bits and pieces from similar drones recovered from abandoned, centuries-old mineshafts, culminating in the 2406 discovery of a sealed vault containing a great number of intact mining drones. The severity of this discovery was immediately apparent to the scientists. Words were had with the governor of Konyang by the local Einstein Engines representative, and it was decided to keep the drones a very closely-guarded secret - with only select Terraneus and government officials even being aware of their existence at all, let alone what was being done with them.<br />
<br />
The Terraneus research team worked feverishly, though in secret, for months upon months. Staff were quietly shipped in from offworld in order to not alert outside observers, and the team continued to work upwards of eighty hour weeks in order to crack the drones. In mid-2407, they achieved one of the most remarkable breakthroughs in recent scientific memory by cracking the AI algorithms of the drones. Information of this moved rapidly from the local Einstein Engines office up the corporate chain and moved equally rapidly up the government's chain from provincial office to Sol itself. The information spread like wildfire, and humanity now had the secret of AI despite not truly knowing from where or who these machines came from. This was little more than a footnote to the Nralakk Federation - to them, these AI were crude and hardly approached the machines that had driven their civilization to ruin.<br />
<br />
The robotics boom of Konyang caused a variety of benefits and harms to the previously marginal outer ring planet. The economy ballooned massively, as did its standard of living and industries. Konyang moved from a rural backwater that exported food and water to a high-tech planet that still exported basic goods, but primarily focused upon robotics. Megacorporations flocked to the planet: Einstein Engines, already present through Terraneus, rapidly secured dominance over the planet; Hephaestus Industries struggled with Einstein dominated competition before selling its factories over to local government control in 2427; and Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals, despite its skrell benefactors, purchased rights to examine the planet's biosphere from Einstein. The fact that their prosthetic limbs were originally designed on this planet has been stated to be a "happy coincidence" by its board. Due to the mass arrival of corporations, jobs were readily available - the planet was booming.<br />
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A massive migration wave of Einstein employees and their families to Aoyama made the city wrangle the spot of first in importance from the nominal capital of Suwon, to the point where the expatriate scientific community and their dependents outnumbered the local Japanese original colonists. The city quickly became known to Humanity as “Point Verdant”, the name assigned to the Terraneus Diagnostics laboratory in Aoyama, while the parent countries on Earth invested billions to capitalize on the success of their colonial project, to lift the planet into a modern world and reap the public relations benefits of their colony achieving a breakthrough in artificial intelligence.<br />
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The rapid expansion of Konyang's industries and cities had overtaxed the limited bureaucracy on the planet to the breaking point, and architects were in short supply. Urban planning on Konyang is estimated to be some of the worst in Alliance space outside of New Hai Phong as a result, with cities such as Point Verdant often having haphazard roads running through them and districts smashed together with no apparent rhyme or reason - a legacy of corporate jockeying for areas of interest, and the municipal corruption that came with it. There are countryside facilities originally utilized for drone research and retrieval that have, in recent years, fallen into disuse and disarray. Such facilities often dot the mountains and foothills of Konyang, slowly being overtaken by nature - sometimes with unfortunate results when these facilities have been improperly stripped of dangerous materials. The environment also suffered in areas where drones were found - jungles were cut or burnt away by corporations in order to get at the precious drones below, prefab buildings were orbitally dropped and erected, and landing zones were cut into the landscape itself.<br />
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The stormy tidal waves so infamous for tormenting the early colonists were tamed through the building of sea walls, a comprehensive road network linked the remote villages with the urban centers, and the city of Ganzaodeng was raised from the rocky desert. The Konyanger conglomerate PACHROM would mark the rise of the first native Chaebols, building shipyards, dams, hydroelectric plants and the first space fleet capable of ferrying enormous capacities of water across interstellar systems.<br />
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===The Positronic Integration | 2410s===<br />
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Soon enough, IPCs entered production on the planet, making Konyang one of the first places to embrace the positronic revolution. The limited resources saw higher prices, lessening the availability of domestically produced frames. Furthermore, the still rudimentary waterproofing technologies meant that IPCs could not work for long hours without shelter, ensuring that human jobs would remain safe from automation. When in the rest of Sol IPCs were produced en-masse for labor, Konyanger IPCs were more integrated in white-collar employment and indoors service-related work. Meanwhile, a growing media culture based on animation combined with the Konyanger recycle-friendly attitude, giving newer generations a fresh look on positronic intelligence, one that valued them as people rather than a disposable resource. The lack of widespread automation never brought the anti-synthetic sentiment so common in the rest of Sol, and IPCs in time became a unique cultural phenomenon in the colony’s urban centers.<br />
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Solarian laws governing the relations between IPCs and mankind were nominally enforced on Konyang, barring synthetics from gaining their own freedom, a fact which remained a thorn between the more liberal, younger Konyangers and the older generations. Einstein Engines allied with the Solarian governorship to press for the continuing status of Konyang as a colony, preventing elections and thus any liberal political influence from threatening the company’s grip on its synthetic workforce. This however, did not prevent Konyanger society to further integrate IPCs, even if the concept of universal citizenship for all synthetics was still far from publicly accepted. Aoyama was most receptive to the positronics, as a center of research and culture, with IPCs welcomed in people’s houses, treated like family and celebrated in festivals and even religious ceremonies. Suwon sentiment remained ambivalent, though many Solarian officials and naval officers expressed most severe concerns, in many cases pressing for crackdowns and questioning the morals of Konyanger citizens. The denizens of New Hong Kong and Ganzaodeng on the other hand, were most unhappy, with the powerful Chinese factory and shipyard labor unions remaining vocally opposed to IPC rights in the workplace, owing to their ties with the wider Solarian unions.<br />
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The profound effects of the emergence of this positronic culture were soon felt across the planet, change being heralded through a wave of demonstrations in mid to late 2412. High school and university students in Aoyama took to the streets to call for synthetic rights, in one of the few instances of pro-IPC disturbances on Solarian soil. In particular, the students called for the immediate emancipation of owned synthetics, marching from the main First Avenue down to the Governor's House and being joined by crowds of people and IPCs alike. The Aoyama Constabulary alongside Terraneus security forces were ordered to put a swift end to the march, resulting in the first major incident since the founding of the colony. Over 400 student injuries were recorded, the crowds responding with rocks and branches to the authorities’ tear gas and water cannons. 247 arrests were made that day, sparking additional outrage in the student movement as the ringleaders were tried as adults and given lengthy prison sentences. Smaller incidents were also noted in Suwon and Boryeong, marking 2412 as a year of upheaval and social change, laying the foundations for full IPC citizenship.<br />
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===Late Colonial Period | 2410s - 2440s===<br />
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As Konyang left behind the troubled ’10s and social peace returned through decrees permitting local city authorities to afford certain permissions for IPCs. This followed the final robotics' boom peak in the 2430s, seeing the planet’s GDP growth reach new levels. The colony’s industrial potential skyrocketed, with hundreds of hydroelectric dams, sea walls and shipyards creating thousands of new jobs in New Hong Kong, the new industrial core of Konyang. Labour relations shifted dramatically, as the new Hephaestus-pioneered industrial chassis enabled IPCs to work in the most difficult of conditions, sidelining and driving off the all powerful Gwongfu labor unions, with human employees forced into the urban centers and Ganzaodeng, contributing to a skyrocketing of the local IPC population in the prefecture.<br />
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Suwon saw a significant rise in business activity with the outside world, emboldening private ventures to the neighboring Frontier Alliance, bringing in massive profits from moss and entertainment exports. The animation industry reached new heights, with hundreds of new studios producing pioneering and high quality work, including classics like “One Day in My Life” and “Tomonomimi”, two of the most highly acclaimed works of media in recent Solarian memory. The entertainment sector brought new life to the Konyanger tourism industry as well, with more and more people rediscovering the distant hidden gem tucked deep in the fringes of the Alliance. The Suwon Stock Exchange was listed for the first time in the Chicago Financial Review, Sol’s most coveted investment periodical, as “Upcoming”, leading to billions of credits flowing in the country from abroad.<br />
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New chaebol conglomerates emerged, replacing even Einstein products with widely successful “Local, Cheaper and Better” campaigns. While Gwok Foods was making headlines in 2439 as the most successful Konyanger “IPC-inspired” exporter by yearly gross tonnage, the Ayame Motor Corporation created the first “completely Konyanger” 2-seat automobile designed for the cramped roads of Suwon and Point Verdant, becoming an instant hit. The Boryeong based Mujigae Publishing brought comics back into the youth’s hands, and Konymation had expanded to control cinemas, movie production studios, theme parks and restaurant chains in its ever expanding media empire.<br />
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===Independence and Present Day | 2462 - Present===<br />
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The Mars Violet Dawn catastrophe of 2462 signaled an era of widespread uncertainty and energy insecurity for the entirety of the Sol Alliance, with the Spur-wide phoron crisis exacerbating the situation for the Alliance’s Middle and especially Outer Ring colonies. A Konyanger recession in the late 2450s had already stretched the colonial government thin, with riots over the cost of living and unemployment in New Hong Kong and Suwon making national news for years on end. As the shaken corporations entered discussions on how they would survive the ever increasing phoron costs, it was made clear to everyone that the Alliance could not, and would not fund the refitting of the corporate fleets with the new Suzuki-Zhang Hammer Drive engine, threatening the complete cutoff of Konyang from outer space should the local Bluespace gate fail. Only a few Einstein vessels and the 58th Fleet stationed on the planet remained as the only reliable link between Konyang and the Spur.<br />
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The shortage soon hit the domestic market, leading to dangerous price increases for even the most essential of supplies. The average Konyanger saw their purchasing power plummet, as salaries remained stagnant in the face of a decreasing supply. The colonial Governor Hyun Kyung-Ho, turned to the only emergency option left, Earth. It was not the first time that Patriotic Aid was raised in China, Korea and Japan, though this time it proved most underwhelming. As the call for help fell on ears of men that could not even help their own economies, the trophy colony had to be abandoned to its own devices, with many in the East Asian public accusing Konyangers of greed and forgetting them in their apogee of financial success. With this last link to the past cut off, the question and possibility of independence soon started circling.<br />
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There was no time for serious debate however, with the Alliance being plunged into rebellion and collapse. On November 12, the 58th Fleet hastily departed Konyang, declaring a state of emergency in the system and abandoning the colonial government to its fate. Only elements of the Solarian Army and the Constabularies remained to maintain order, themselves being composed almost entirely of local Konyanger enlisted. The situation immediately turned into unrest, as public sentiment against the ineptitude of the Alliance boiled over into the streets. Massive student protests saw the storming of public buildings and central plazas in every major town and city, demanding a sharp reduction to the cost of living, IPC emancipation and a barring of the 58th Fleet from returning. Government reaction was mild, limited to the prevention of damages and protection of private property. Hyun Kyung-Ho was otherwise sympathetic to the students’ cause, sparking outrage within groups of Alliance-minded Army officers and Einstein corporate elites, who sought to prevent any secession of Konyang.<br />
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Thus, on November 15 2462, elements of the Army garrison under Lieutenant General Jiang Hongbing mobilized against the wishes of the Governor, taking up key positions in Suwon and Point Verdant. The mutinous 8th Sappers infiltrated the historic SUWON beacon telecommunications complex, preparing the country for a silent coup and preventing any long range communications with Sol. Jiang Hongbing, inspired by actions of mutinous admirals, took it upon himself to restore Konyang to the Alliance by marching the Army into the streets. While some of the formations under his command were willing to participate, the vast majority refused to bear arms against the Konyanger Governor or the student movements. In the following day, an internal power struggle saw many officers confined to their quarters, with Army hardliners being arrested, chased off or even assaulted in their own barracks as a loyalist armored brigade blocked access to the Governor’s House, preventing Hongbing’s men from touching Hyun Kyung-Ho.<br />
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With the coup’s inglorious end visible, the Governor’s staff were racing into negotiations with diplomatic officers from Coalition of Colonies still in the country for an express accession into the Coalition, following Konyang’s independence. Jiang Hongbing’s associates surrendered, himself fleeing into the thick jungles of Boryeong Prefecture, declaring a patriotic struggle in the Alliance’s name before soon being betrayed and confined at the 58th base’s Brig. On November 24 2462, telecommunications were restored, and Konyanger independence was broadcast to the world. The country’s preliminary accession into the Coalition was soon after announced, turning a new leaf in Konyang’s history. While the news was received with muted reaction from a confused Alliance government with more pressing matters to handle, the secession of Konyang was a huge blow to the three parent countries. After Governor Hyun Kyung-Ho assembled the nation’s intellectuals, economic and political figures, it was decided that he would remain in place as independent Konyang’s first Governor to organize free elections and set up the foundations for a democratic state.<br />
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Now, as a free Konyang comes out to the world stage, strong government initiative has seen its large synthetic factories nationalized, rapidly introducing legislation to establish the relationship with Einstein Engines. While they still are the dominating megacorporation on the planet, Einstein has lost most of its heavy industry, though still retaining the important research facilities around the vaults, as well as a good portion of software and positronic brain creation.<br />
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==Location and Environment==<br />
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===The Haneunim System===<br />
The Haneunim System, centered around the yellow star it is named for, Haneunim, contains four major celestial bodies, including the planet of Konyang. The whole system bears evidence of ancient mining operations, missing an asteroid belt to separate the inner and outer system with what few rocks remain being mostly picked clean of minerals.<br />
* '''Huozhu'''<br />
The innermost planet is known as Huozhu and remains practically inaccessible due to the scorching heat of Haneunim. Unmanned drones have indicated that the planet, which is visible to the naked eye on Konyang, is greatly lacking in any mineral wealth and has no atmosphere to speak of.<br />
* '''Hwanung'''<br />
The second planet from Haneunim, Hwanung, is an insignificant dwarf planet believed to have maintained a thin arid atmosphere before most of its mass was artificially stripped away. While relatively close to Konyang and far cooler than Huozhu, observation and a handful of expeditions revealed that most of the planet's crust had been artificially stripped away, exposing its solid, icy mantle. Konyanger exogeologists continue to survey the planet from time to time and PACHROM has obtained a permit to mine ice in order to meet their quotas to Orepit.<br />
* '''Qixi'''<br />
The third planet in the System is Konyang, accompanied by its lifeless moon of Qixi. Qixi is noteworthy for housing a KASF base and shipyard, the Konyanger military's largest off-planet possession; while more prestigious than working aboard one of the KASF's orbital stations, being posted here is considered boring by some. Some in the government have discussed plans to build more shipping hubs on the moon, akin to Biesel's own Valkyrie, but these talks have largely remained academic due to adequacy of Konyang's existing spaceport facilities.<br />
* '''Shiranui'''<br />
Shiranui, a ringed gas giant colored blue thanks to its methane composition, is the outermost planet from Haneunim. Prior to the discovery of phoron, private companies operated over three dozen methane-harvesting facilities in orbit around Shiranui. That number has dwindled down to just thirteen in the past few decades; the remaining workers, their families having often worked in the industry for many years, are usually bitter towards NanoTrasen. The Aerospace Forces keep a number of unmanned satellites around the gas giant in order to better monitor pirate and refugee activity.<br />
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An asteroid belt, far to the outskirts and composed mostly of ice, forms a ring around the entire system, although this remains largely unexploited by both the Konyanger government and local corporations. It is instead the stomping ground of both refugees fleeing the Sol Wildlands, and the pirates that seek to prey on them.<br />
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===Geography===<br />
[[File:Konyang_map_sat.png|A geographic map of Konyang, showcasing the planet's different biomes. |thumb|800px]]<br />
Primarily a tropical world smaller than Earth, Konyang boasts a mean radius of 5,111 kilometers. Freshwater oceans cover upwards of 88% of the planet’s surface. These oceans also grant Konyang its signature green color when viewed from orbit, in no small part thanks to the abundant presence of moss in the planet’s waterways. The planet’s continents are classified by its larger landmasses and island chains, although given the tides, the planet remains studded with small island chains and archipelagos that ebb and flow with the season. Two small ice caps exist on Konyang where the planet experiences a miniscule amount of snowfall and cold climates. The Konyanger terrain is principally mountainous, with large ranges covering vast areas of the planet’s landmasses. The tallest peak belongs to Mount Sansin, the highest mountain standing at a record 13.890 meters above sea level, its base forming an island of its own. Flanking the mountains are usually lush jungles, present in almost every island and continent in varying densities. This means that settlements have to be located in clearings adjacent to the coastline, on terrain with relatively even elevation. The largest and most dense jungle is located in Bukupo, an island in the heart of the Boryeong Prefecture. The largest landmass on the planet is Cheomseongtang, home of the Suwon prefecture and the nation’s capital. Other notable landmasses are the Oshima islands, hosting the largest mountain ranges, as well as the Yu islands, home of the only biome that could be described as a desert. New Hokkaido is the largest northernmost territory, renowned for its biodiversity and frosty tundra due to its proximity to the planet’s pole, as well as a unique lack of jungles. It is administered directly by the Government of Konyang, being the site of many scientific expeditions and military exercises, only boasting a population of a few hundred people.<br />
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===Environment===<br />
[[File:Konyang.png|An image of Konyang, displaying mossy oceans and algae-covered water as the face of the planet. |thumb]]<br />
Konyang features a highly atypical environment for a habitable planet: it is entirely freshwater. The surface of the planet is primarily oceans, with estimates placing upwards of 88% of the planet as covered in water. What is not under the sea are the islands of Konyang, where the vast majority of its population lives. These islands follow a general pattern: a small coastal area and a large mountain range ringing the island. The freshwater oceans of Konyang feature a remarkable diverse biosphere, and Konyang underwater flora, such as freshwater moss, is often used in the planet's native dishes and exported offworld, as far afield as Sol and Tau Ceti. Konyang is defined by two seasons: wet, lasting nine months, and dry, lasting three months.<br />
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The coastal regions of Konyang represent the smallest regions of its islands, but contain upwards of 90% of the planet's population. Often called the "coastal jungles" of Konyang, these areas are extremely wet - flooding is an issue in many areas, though the bulk of populated and urban areas are protected by extensive flood protection infrastructure, primarily lengthy complexes of walls. Coastal areas feature a wealth of plant and animal life, both of which have been put under stress by the rapid expansion of Konyang's cities.<br />
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Although Konyang’s coastal waters are often tinted green from moss, even more so than its oceans, harvesting and cleanup efforts along the coasts of the main and important islands have resulted in some sections of the planet appearing blue. These areas are often exploited for settlements and as tourist destinations for their scenic looks, while dedicated seaweed and algae farms dot the planet, providing an income for local villages and traditional producers. The most famous Konyanger food exporter, Go-Go Gwok!, has the largest involvement in the moss and seaweed industry.<br />
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The inland mountain ranges of Konyang can be up to several kilometers in height in some areas, with smaller foothills featuring some rare settlements leading up to them. These ranges, which lack valuable minerals completely due to Glorsh-era mining, are the reason for Konyang's jungles - they form an effective rain shadow. Some mountains have what is assumed to be collapsed mines in them, deactivated drones scattered throughout.<br />
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A phenomenon unique to the easternmost Yu islands of the Ganzaodeng prefecture, inland deserts are created due to the rain shadow caused by the surrounding mountain ranges. These are the least populated areas of the planet. Extraordinarily dry, little grows or lives in these environments. Rare Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals facilities can be found in this area, taking advantage of the isolation and relatively sterile environment that the inland deserts offer.<br />
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Lastly, the oceans of Konyang are regularly stormy, the large waves being harnessed for their energy in electricity production at numerous such outposts, scattered throughout the unpopulated islets in the farthest and most secluded areas.<br />
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===Flora and Fauna===<br />
Wildlife on Konyang is a peculiar mix of its original environment and the thousands of invasive species introduced by Human colonization. Species introduced in the initial colonization of the planet include huge herbivores and peaceful, if ecologically destructive, wildlife. Additionally, the large oceans are host to an uncountable number of species of fish, crustaceans and aquatic molluscs, with many being unique to their region of origin. Flora on Konyang is among its most famed aspects, spearheaded by the mossy shores and overgrowth which covers the vast majority of its visible terrain. All plant life which survives on Konyang must survive the extremely damp environment, and as such either thrives in the water, or is capable of moving away from it. Konyang's waters are famously covered in green moss and seaweed, giving it its signature color when viewed from orbit.<br />
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Some examples of unique flora and fauna are:<br />
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'''Shelfers'''<br />
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In the marsh and lowlands of Konyang's algae coasts resides an invasive species of large omnivores known as '''Shelfers.''' These are gluttonous moss-feasting beasts, with a distinct six-legged and bloated appearance. They are excellent swimmers, owed to webbed joints and a wedge shaped, slick head. From this, it uses a set of large protruding teeth to scrape moss and undersea growths. This creature is endangered, and displayed as a national animal thanks to its unique appearance. Originally a danger to unprepared colonization, these gained a reputation for its tendency to attack colonists.<br />
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These were first encountered by colonists who had shipped wildlife to and from Arusha, where escaped subjects managed to reproduce- over the years becoming a cultural icon due to their miraculous beneficial place they have in Konyang's ecosystem.<br />
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'''Konyanger Jeweler Cockatoo'''<br />
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Known for its affinity to decorate its nesting grounds with surface-level pearls and gems of all sorts is an opportunistic carnivore, the '''Jeweler Cockatoo.''' This large avian is an offshoot of the Earth parrot, bred originally to “liven the landscape” of Konyang’s dreary inner mountainous lands. Eventually, with the assistance of high-level genetic modification, they grew to giant proportions whilst maintaining the health and lifestyle of a standard - ''if highly dangerous'' - parrot. <br />
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Where small patches of forest and barrens clash, these birds thrive and craft beautiful roosts in the relative safety of open fields. In these fields, diminutive predators avoid the large avian’s glare (or don’t, and are frequently preyed upon.) The Jeweler Cockatoo possesses two sharp talons on one digit of each of its feet, and a short - but unbelievably sharp beak, refined further by its tendency to dig. The wingspan of these birds can grow up to fifteen feet.<br />
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The Jeweler Cockatoo is the national bird of Konyang, with many stylized imagery depicting the bird in some shape or form.<br />
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'''Glittering Konyang Moss'''<br />
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Found in vast plains of coastal territories in excess is the overflowing, yet precious resource of '''Konyang moss.''' One of its primary exports, this barely-tapped commodity retains a huge capacity to feed Konyang’s already sturdy ecosystem, and the billions which reside upon it, and more to export. The evolutionary process which grew this mystical, shimmering moss is a mystery, however its luster and fields of green it generates has a wonderful impact on sustaining Konyang’s moist, overgrown and greenery-rich habitat. <br />
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Konyang moss is pivotal to its moving industries, and even after the robotics boom, it remains a stable source of incoming development for the since-burgeoning planet. The moss’ nutritional properties have been highly studied in recent decades. Its rapid pace of growth is exclusive to Konyang’s ecological circumstances, with everything from subterranean heat, to the algae present in its beautiful green seas factoring in.<br />
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==Economy==<br />
While young, the nation of Konyang boasts a powerful regional economy built upon decades of trade with both the Alliance and various Coalition partners. A developed country, Konyang manages to surpass its near total lack of ore with robust exports of foodstuff and energy, a strong shipping industry and a powerful robotics sector.<br />
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===Raw Materials===<br />
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[[File:Konyang dam.png|thumb|Dams and sea walls are a common sight on Konyang, used to protect cities and population centres from floods and tsunamis, as well as to exploit the violent waves for electricity.]]<br />
Konyang's freshwater oceans were perhaps the largest boon to the starting colonists, and continues to play a substantial role behind the planet's exports. Fishing provides for a large aspect of the domestic economy, with millions of fishing boats and trawlers scouring the shores and oceans for all kinds of fish, crustaceans and other aquatic creatures, of which a complete list doesn't exist. Such is the biodiversity in Konyang's waters, that each region has its own fish markets which serve clients all over the planet and the Spur. Besides fishing, Konyang's biggest aquatic produce in terms of volume belongs to its enormous seaweed and moss harvesting industries. Entire ships are purpose-built for collecting wild greenery which floats on the high seas and the bays of Konyang, bringing in billions in offworld exports and domestic sales. The harvesting of moss is not exclusive to the sea and the aquatic farms either, as many edible varieties are collected inland, both in the planet's jungles and mountain ranges. Konyanger moss is Spur-renowned thanks to powerful marketing campaigns and the spread of the planet's cuisine.<br />
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With tremendously stormy wet seasons lasting most of the year, it is no surprise that Konyanger corporations have attempted and managed to harness the energy of the wind, waves and waters of the planet. Electricity is generated through a network of dams, hydroelectric plants, wave power stations and tidal power stations, all dotted across the vast shores and oceans of Konyang. The electricity produced is then either stored in super capacitors, or is directly wired inland through thick underwater cables, catering to the needs of virtually every power grid on the globe. Much of it is also transported on board space freighters lined with rows of large batteries, ready to make the journey to Alliance and Coalition worlds as part of the lucrative electricity export industry.<br />
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Lastly, Konyang excells in the export of water and timber. The continent-spanning untouched jungles provide an excellent source of wood for foreign markets as well as domestic construction, of which there is very heavy use in lieu of metal structures. The freshwater is also extremely easy to chemically filter, skipping any desalination process before being bottled or shipped as-is on board of one of many of Konyang's water barges; large hollow space vessels with tankers and pools for water storage.<br />
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===Maritime Shipping===<br />
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Surface shipping is another one of the main forces behind Konyang's domestic market economy, and an inseparable part of the nation's maritime culture. The docks and shipyards of New Hong Kong are the beating heart of the sector, which provides employment to more than 20% of the entire planet's population. Entire towns were formed and dedicated to housing the laborers and their families close to the coast, and many islands subsist entirely off of seamen's salaries and work at nearby electricity stations. Surface shipping, while slower, is a lot more economical for planetary moving of goods across the continents and islands of Konyang, being preferred to airlifting or orbital shuttling. Aside from the creation of jobs and the transportation of goods, Konyang's shipping industry produces excellent sailors who can rival those of planets such as Europa, many of whom eventually transition to space.<br />
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===Robotics and Services===<br />
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Ever since the robotics boom, Konyang has become a major player in the export and development of IPCs and everything surrounding them. Each year, the most cutting edge technologies catered to the improvement of the life of synthetics are released by Konyanger software companies, often to critical acclaim. This is because of the the substantial positronic population, free and eager to spend on such innovations that allow them to experience the world in a more human-like fashion. When it comes to the export of IPCs, Einstein Engines remains the prime manufacturer of chassis and positronic brains, which are shipped abroad without being activated. The practice, while putting Konyang on the map as one of the big regional producers of synthetics, is a hotly contested area between deeply entrenched corporate interests and an increasingly politically aware IPC populace. Non-positronic robotics are a separate, but once significant part of the economy, with Konyang having hoeld high places in the spur leaderboards for the making of robots, mechs, pAIs and automated systems. This sector however, took a major hit as the robotics boom slowly deflated, leaving behind abandoned industrial complexes and derelict factories.<br />
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The nation's service sector has to be one of the biggest ones, contributing a sizeable portion of the country's Gross Domestic Product. Many of the companies listed on the Suwon Stock Exchange are everything from financial consultation firms, to insurance agencies, housed in every majpr city's financial district. Skyscrapers and office complexes in downtown Suwon, Point Verdant and New Hong Kong are a daily reminder of the office life millions of Konyangers live, and many parents dream of their child being able to one day find employment in a top law firm or such. While mostly concentrated in the domestic market, many of these companies have expanded their services abroad, building a reputation of Konyanger reliability and impeccable work.<br />
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<br />
===Konyanger Corporations===<br />
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In terms of the traditional megacorporations, the undoubted hegemon remains Einstein Engines, entrenched in the planet's life since the beginning of Konyang's colonization. The megacorporation owns a number of subsidiaries on the planet in many different sectors, most notably, Terraneus Diagnostics, which regularly bankrolls and invests in government initiatives in exchange for their continuous presence. It retains the original research facilities and control over the vaults, even if IPC production and exports are now handled by the Konyang Robotics Corporation, a public company in which Einstein controls a 49% stake. The Terraneus facilities on the planet mainly handle shell research and positronic brain production for export to the Coalition, while they occasionally butt heads with Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals in the realm of IPC research. Zeng-Hu has the second-largest megacorporate presence, mainly in biosphere research and sales of pharmaceuticals. Despite this, local conglomerates generally dominate the country’s financial sector, commanding the government’s cooperation and good graces in order to keep a stable economy. Upon achieving independence, Konyang has managed to maintain a strong presence of homegrown corporations in the fields of agriculture, media, energy and consumer goods.<br />
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'''PACHROM'''<br />
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A chemical and engineering corporation, PACHROM builds, maintains and manages eighty percent of all private dams, hydroelectric plants and seawalls on Konyang, as well as engaging in the field of chemicals and plastics production. Headed by Park Moon-soo, the business mogul is vying for influence with the government as indispensable to the nation’s energy output and defence against floods and natural disasters, making the “Pachrom Parks” one of the richest and most powerful business dynasties on the planet. Headquartered in central Suwon, the bulk of PACHROM’s operations are located in diasporic, uninhabited islands in the middle of the world’s oceans, where hundreds of organic and synthetic workmen toil daily to run the water powered electricity plants in extremely dangerous conditions.<br />
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The company’s notorious reputation for neglecting the safety of its employees and the environmental disregard for waste disposal from its plastics factories has been a big stain the Parks have struggled to wash off. While their ties to both the Alliance administration and the Konyang government have proven instrumental in their ability to dodge damning legal action, demonstrations of public outcry are a common feature in and around the street opposite the PACHROM office complex. To counter this, public relations campaigns are a constant focus, with tens of millions being spent in portraying them in a positive light. Charities are a large part of the Park family’s social presence, sponsoring public works and offering scholarships mainly in the Boryeong and New Hong Kong prefectures, where the majority of employees originate.<br />
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Often finding itself without funds from Unity Station, the colonial administration would commission PACHROM in the form of lucrative contracts for the construction of dams and power stations, allowing the utilisation of synthetics and IPC for the dangerous labour required. Due to society’s favourable opinion towards positronic intelligence, the multitude of cases of IPC fatalities would be swept under the rug with government assistance, creating a culture of tolerance towards lacklustre safety features and general disregard. Today, PACHROM’s future remains uncertain as the newly independent state of Konyang wishes tends to distance itself from its shaky past, a fact indicated by the recent awarding of the Kaneyama nuclear plant to the public company GON-ENE.<br />
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'''Gwok Group'''<br />
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Founded in the early 2410s with the name Hyeonsang Foods, the precursor to today’s multinational food conglomerate was the first attempt at commercialising Konyang’s seaweed and moss both for export and internal consumption. Initially finding limited success due to an overly competitive local market and foreign consumers' reluctance to the Konyanger novelty, the company's defining moment arrived during the robotics boom, launching them from mediocrity into the billion credit business stage.<br />
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As Einstein Engines staff poured into Point Verdant, Hyeonsang secured a contract from the megacorporation's local branch for providing meals and miscellaneous catering to workers and research staff. The once alienated Einstein employees would soon come around, praising the brand for its flavourful seasoning and convenience, eventually spreading the word to Einstein facilities and back home. By the late 40s, Hyeonsang was on the track of significant financial success, having secured a large foothold in the foreign dominated central districts of Point Verdant.<br />
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Rebranding into the more consumer friendly “Gwok” name in 2452, the company’s reputation abroad led to the opening of regional branches in the Solarian middle and core worlds, generating an increasingly massive amount of income, used for an aggressive takeover of the local Konyanger market. By buying off competitors, monopolising the moss and seaweed industry and introducing new marketing, Gwok’s domestic success was soon guaranteed as the primary supplier of supermarkets. In 2454 the IPC Gwok-0783, until then a senior executive and the face of the company as the main influencer of the rebrand, assumed direct control as CEO of the conglomerate thus becoming the first IPC in charge of a billion credit corporation in Sol space. The following years would see the consolidation of all affiliated assets and filial companies under an umbrella Gwok Group, topping the charts and establishing a farming, food and restaurant chain empire.<br />
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'''Konymation'''<br />
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Konymation represents the peak of the Konyanger animated media scene, being by far the most successful and most well known studio in the country, with a Spur-wide fame. It arose in the early days of the robotics boom, creating a resurgency of animations for both children and adults. While the industry was almost non-existent and cheap Solarian cartoons were the norm, a group of inspired artists came together to animate and direct the first feature-length production from Konyang, using native voice actors and a brand new artstyle of their own. The result was "One Day in my Life", a slice of life film following the daily routine of an IPC secretary in a human-dominated world, becoming an instant hit with both domestic and foreign audiences. Since then, Konymation rose to become the largest studio of quality animations, creating films and series for all ages and of all genres. Such was the success, that any animated pieces from Konyang have passed into the public consciousness simply as "Konymations", referred to as such in both the planet and abroad. Since their foundation, the studio has developed into a media conglomerate, buying out holoscreen channels, online platforms, news networks and more.<br />
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'''Mujigae Publishing'''<br />
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The biggest publishing house, Mujigae is to the comic book industry what Konymation is to animation. Having created thousands of interesting and touching comic series, Mujigae is credited with bringing paper back into the hands of millions of Konyangers, in an age where digital platforms have become the default for nearly everything in life. Many of Mujigae's works find great demand abroad as well as at home, with the company being known for their efforts to constantly seek out and recruit new artists with fresh ideas. A plethora of published series often find themselves being adapted into the holoscreen in lucrative partnerships with Konymation, as well as the other way around. Additionally, Mujigae's philanthropic work cannot go unmentioned; millions of credits have found their way to various charities on Konyang, primarily those regarding the children, the money drawn from art festivals and comicons that are hosted annually, often with the participation of the Ministry of Culture. <br />
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'''Konyang Robotics Corporation'''<br />
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The Konyang Robotics Corporation, or KRC as is more commonly known, is the country's largest government-controlled company centered around the manufacture, maintenance and welfare of the nation's positronic population. Borrowing heavily from Einstein know-how and infrastructure, it originated from the nationalization of Einstein and Terraneus IPC factories, with the majority of their employees swapping over to a government payroll. Einstein Engines controls 49% of the shares of the company, lending it tremendous behind-the-scenes influence on Konyang's synthetic population.<br />
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The primary function of the KRC is the production, storage and activation of IPC citizens. A very politically and socially sensitive topic, great care is placed by the government through the Ministry of Health and Positronic Affairs to meticulously calculate and order the amount of yearly activations, so as to maintain the Human-IPC ratio and meet the demands of the job market. To that effect, the KRC also acts as a sort of "school" for the newly activated IPC citizens, with special orientation camps where synthetics are taught about Konyanger society before released to the world.<br />
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Furthermore, the KRC acts as the primary health provider for Konyanger IPCs, with clinics and hospitals situated in every town and city, as well as strategically placed in certain villages in the countryside. Thousands of roboticists, engineers and software technicians are employed by the KRC to act as the equivalents of surgeons, physicians, nurses and paramedics for the IPC population, who are afforded universal healthcare through the KRC. Appointment times are dependent on location and the capacity of the clinic or hospital, with many in more remote areas having to wait months for limb replacements and other, more heavy duty needs that cannot be met by their local KRC center.<br />
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'''GON-ENE'''<br />
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GON-ENE is a newly formed, state-controlled energy utilities company, created following the announcement of the Kaneyama Nuclear Power Plant. Perceived as a direct competitor to PACHROM, GON-ENE has been planned to expand into hydroelectric and wave power, giving the government a greater control of the nation's power grid and cutting back reliance on privately-owned sector, though complete autarky is off the table for at least many decades.<br />
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==Government==<br />
''Main Article: [[Konyanger Government and Politics#Government|Konyanger Government]]''<br />
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Konyang is organized as a unitary semi-parliamentary republic headed by a President, the former colonial governor Hyun Kyung-Ho being elected to the position after independence. The Prime Minister is elected by the citizenry every four years, and is the leader of the governing party in the Parliament of Konyang. The current Prime Minister is Myeong Myung-Dae.<br />
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Planetary politics are found on both a national and prefectural level, with every party running in local and national elections. Polarization is fairly limited, the vast majority of Konyangers rejecting the extreme views put forward by radical political movements in the country that tend to be marginalized. IPC politicians do exist and are found in every major party, though most can be seen sitting with the National Party of Konyang.<br />
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===Military===<br />
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[[File:Marine.png|thumb|right|An IPC Konyanger Naval Infantryman in full gear.]]<br />
Konyang’s military, also known as the Konyang Armed Forces, was first formed shortly after the colony’s independence from personnel of the former Solarian garrison. As a result, it carries a lot of the traditions of the Solarian Armed Forces. Bolstered by conscription laws requiring both organic and synthetic citizens one year of mandatory service, the KAF possesses Army, Navy and Aerospace branches. IPCs are actively recruited and accepted into the military, forming both their own and deployed in mixed units. This segregation is justified by the government as based solely on the differentiating capabilities, logistical needs and skills between man and machine.<br />
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That claim does hold true to an extent, with IPCs taking a more active role in special forces formations, dealing with operations requiring levels of precision and focus that artificial intelligence can easily provide. A famous example is the army’s Mechatronic Corps, an elite unit utilising large, leftover battle mechs retrofitted for a pair of pilots. Such a force is unique in the Coalition, and is often used abroad in operations under broader CoC military command. Mixed infantry units of conscripts do exist, fielded in jungle patrol tasks or assigned garrison duty.<br />
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Notably for a 25th century military, the Navy maintains a very large aquatic force which it uses to patrol the vast oceans of the planet. Regularly described as more of a coast guard than a military arm, it is more geared for domestic policing than combat, consisting mostly of ships acting as launching points for many smaller, coast guard type vessels that patrol the vast expanse of the planet’s waterways and launch military aircraft. Nevertheless, it provides important services with its multiple telecommunication, radar and island outposts, providing crucial meteorological information for everyday seafaring and flood prevention on a planet where storms and extreme weather are the norm.<br />
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The Konyang Aerospace Forces perform both atmospheric and orbital operations with their doctrine clearly influenced by former Solarian officers within their ranks. Their fleet consist of obsolete vessels donated by Coalition planets, partially brought up to a modern standard by the planet’s technology and manufacturing sector. In 2465, the KASF’s main tasks include protecting the system from pirates and policing the large influx of refugees from the Human Wildlands, regularly pushing them to other planets within the Coalition as per Konyang’s strict migration laws.<br />
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===National Police===<br />
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[[File:Konyanger Police Ranks.png|thumb|In order to organize the National Police and smooth cooperation between prefectures, a unified rank structure was adopted shortly after its formation.]]<br />
Despite its federal nature, the main law enforcement agency on the planet is the National Police, formed after Konyang’s independence from the merging of a number of local and specialised agencies under the then Solarian authority. One major change since then has been the introduction of synthetic officers in all positions and ranks, while also creating special divisions suited best for them. Police gear remains rather antiquated for the era, the force still using old Solarian equipment and stocks from the colonial garrison, meaning that much of the tactics and thinking remain unchanged. Considered tame by Alliance standards, the National Police places an emphasis on preventative policing, building rapport with local communities, and relying on a sense of civic duty from the populace to perform its duties. Despite this, the National Police has nonetheless received criticism for occasional incidents of corruption and brutality, mostly against synthetic citizens. This is more common in remote departments and conservative prefectures, where the sudden inclusiveness of synthetic officers with equal pay and opportunities is seen as a threat. Such incidents aside, government efforts for the modernisation of the National Police are ongoing.<br />
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The police is subject to the Ministry of Public Safety in Suwon and is organised at the national level, with local departments answering to the assigned hierarchy in their prefecture. Special divisions are deployed to deal with various policing duties, their size ranging from a whole new branch to Special Robotics detachments specialising in detainment of volatile synthetic suspects. The largest of these subdivisions and arguably the most important, the Coast Guard is the maritime arm of the National Police, operating a fleet of shore and sea patrol vessels in their mission to enforce the law at the huge array of islands and in Konyang’s waters. As the planet is surrounded by oceans, the Coast Guard has proven itself essential to the battle against smuggling and piracy while also assuming search and rescue duties during flooding, tsunamis and other catastrophes. The National Police has also gained Coalition-wide acclaim for its Special Robotics Division - a task force known for its expertise in detaining IPC without causing permanent damage.<br />
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==Culture==<br />
''Main article: [[Konyanger_Culture_and_Society|Konyanger Culture]]''<br />
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Konyang’s culture has been shaped by its East Asian Earther heritage, unique status as a colony with little to no resources, and as the birthplace of positronics. Konyanger society is often described as closed-off, with many unspoken social norms that vary from prefecture to prefecture. Key social norms that are shared in Konyang’s culture are Harmony, Reciprocity, and Face. Often derided as “meekness”, Harmony refers to enforcing unity and conformity within society. The specific manifestations vary from prefecture to prefecture, but in general, individuals who disrupt a sense of peace can face social ostracization. For instance, explicit disagreement such as using the word “no” is considered impolite, and a non-answer is often far more acceptable. Harmony also refers to a person’s social role; respect should be shown to people of a higher status, usually along traditional lines such as age, profession, and experience.<br />
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===Media===<br />
''Main article: [[Konyanger_Culture_and_Society#Media|Media]]''<br />
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Public media in Konyang is a powerful industry, and as broad as it may seem, it is very tightly knit. Aside from galactic-wide reruns and broadcasts of other nation’s shows, little seems to stand out - except the audio broadcast and illustrated artistic avenues. These two are well-refined artistic giants compared to other forms of entertainment on the planet.<br />
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A huge portion of the planet’s political views and very “personality” are channeled through its larger studios, where many are found enthused to spread its culture galaxy-wide.<br />
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===Cuisine===<br />
The primary diet of Konyangers consists of moss, seaweed and fish, with farms and pastures on land being rare due to the thick jungle. Konyang's moss is either harvested in the wild, grown in "natural" hydrofarms, or grown synthetically in bioplants. The moss itself is said to change its taste depending on the environment in which it is grown, and natural moss from the coasts around Konyang's islands is highly prized. Exports of moss and seaweed are a very lucrative business, held primarily by the galaxy-famous Go-Go Gwok! brand. Many workers, however, must make do with hydrofarm moss at best, and synthetic substitutes at worst. Konyang's fish - quite diverse, due to its freshwater environments - are also often consumed on the planet, with many being exported as luxury food as far afield as Venus and Tau Ceti. More conventional but water-intensive crops such as rice and other tropical fruits are also grown to a certain extent but are considered a rarity.<br />
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The planet is also home to a thriving beverages industry, with local varieties of algae providing the basis of a light but thick alcoholic drink colloquially known as “Nong jiu” domestically and abroad. The wide selection of produce on the planet however means more traditional drinks are produced, typically drawing from their Earther roots and commonly based on rice. Some of these drinks are exported by local businesses such as Go-Go Gwok! while Zeng-Hu has wrestled to control some of these brands in an attempt to stop them from competing with their own lineups.<br />
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===Synthetic Cuisine===<br />
Synthetic-unique cuisine is an unusual case in the Spur, but not for Konyang. Here, robots utilize gustatorial implants to - if inefficiently - consume, or at least “taste” food regularly. Indeed, there is an entire market for synthfood where robots can enjoy their own form of taste, texture and uniquely perceptive flavor for foods. Mostly, synthfood is described as a thick slime, one with varying additives for color. Texture is mostly a simulated process within gustatorial implants, given they are not always present on tongues alone - meaning that the actual texture of these synthfoods remains the same gooey substance.<br />
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''One can achieve a similar substance to these synthfoods mechanically by grinding certain foods into paste, or utilizing candy machines with your choice of ingredients and output.''<br />
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==Organized Crime==<br />
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=====Benevolent Guild=====<br />
The Benevolent Guild is a criminal organisation operating primarily within the decrepit, dark shadows of New Hong Kong. Originating as a mutual aid society for low income and forced penal colonists shipped into New Hong Kong by the Alliance government, it developed into a ruthless crime syndicate with strong ties to the local lower class community. From the start, the tightly knit communal and familial ties have played an important role in preserving the gang’s power and shielding them from police action. Only in recent years has any meaningful progress been made, the allocation of governmental resources and the increasingly violent and profit-oriented tactics of the Guild having alienated much of the younger generation, chipping away at the once widely popular support.<br />
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Starting with extortion and loan sharking, the Benevolent Guild rapidly expanded into gambling, drugs and violent crime such as kidnapping both in New Hong Kong and in New Kowloon. It is not uncommon for synthetics that find themselves victims of the group’s loan shark tactics to be ‘collected’ as collateral damage and subsequently carted off to whichever corner of the Orion Spur where their new owners await them usually at a far cheaper rate than elsewhere. One of the few institutions on Konyang refusing to admit synthetics owing to a deeply conservative and spiritually esoteric internal ideology, a pragmatist outlook often compels them to deal with and even cooperate with IPC politicians, police and rival gangs. Connections with criminal organisations in the wider Spur have been confirmed to exist, as various crime syndicates in Xanu, New Hai Phong and Luna are known to be in connection with the Benevolent Guild.<br />
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=====5-Cheung=====<br />
Emerging as one of the strongest IPC/organic street gangs of Suwon, the 5-Cheung numbers in the thousands of members in the cities of the Suwon and Point Verdant prefectures. The organisation’s origin as a loose collective of delinquents and fringe elements has since developed into a nationwide crime family with a powerful hierarchy fielding biker gangs and thugs to enforce their tight grip on the underworld. With a black repertoire of gambling, extortion, money laundering and narcotics, the 5-Cheung is considered a main rival to the Benevolent Guild of New Hong Kong, the two frequently coming to blows in a series of wars and uneasy truces over control of turf and general competition.<br />
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An open secret in the country’s political sphere has the 5-Cheung profit lucratively from corruption in the highest levels of government and police. During the Solarian era, prominent politicians employed protection from the 5-Cheung, soliciting their services in voter swaying, intimidation of opposition members and violent disruption of rallies and demonstrators. This has given the gang a justified reputation for being the political soldiers of ruling dynasties and representing the authorities in the underworld and on the street in exchange for immunity from prosecution. Following Konyang’s independence, the reformed National Police retained a virtually unchanged staff while the nation’s same prominent political families, now unshackled from Alliance oversight, enjoy even more freedom. As such, it is safe to say that 5-Cheung’s entrenched position will continue to remain untouched aside from the occasional drug bust and arrest of low level members.<br />
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=====Sea Bandits=====<br />
Although both the previous colonial administration and the nascent Konyanger Armed Forces and Coast Guard have tried to stamp out piracy, the sheer expanse of the planet means that groups of what the authorities call “sea bandits” continue to infest the waters and orbit of Konyang. Ranging from small motor boats launched from fishing villages with nothing more than an antique rifle, to retrofitted probes salvaged from the refugee waves pouring into the system, piracy is one of the most pressing social and security issues faced by the newly formed nation.<br />
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Individual pirate groups usually number no greater than twenty people but the Sea Bandits as a whole operate as a wider criminal network inclusive of individuals and crews from all over the planet. By coordinating their activities and intelligence through encrypted sites, the organisation manages to both evade and stay one step ahead of the authorities. Most of their activities take the form of kidnapping, armed robbery of craft and hijacking unescorted seafarers, while admittedly avoiding the busiest and well guarded sealanes and locations. The most audacious raid by the Sea Bandits to date involved the boarding and ransoming of a cruise ship by the use of an unregistered freighter. Although only circumstantial evidence has been uncovered, Golden Deep Zaibatsu have also been accused of working with Sea Bandit groups by launching probes full of narcotics, to be recovered by the pirates.<br />
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==Synthetics on Konyang==<br />
As the origin of the integrated positronic chassis now found throughout the Orion Spur, Konyang has always had a quite unique relationship with IPCs, the IPC population constituting a staggering 34% of the total population. While IPCs throughout the Sol Alliance are often looked upon as little more than property, tools, or novelties depending upon their frame those found upon Konyang possessed a notably greater degree of autonomy and freedom before the planet’s secession from the rest of the Alliance, achieving full and unconditional freedom afterwards. Legal ownership of synthetics within the borders of the Republic does not exist, the Emancipation Act constituting one of the first acts passed by Parliament. IPCs can work wherever they like, live however they please within the confines of the law, and partake in politics by voting or being elected. As such, foreigners are repeatedly cautioned to not bring any privately held IPCs with them, for they cannot be forced to return unwillingly.<br />
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Ordinary Konyangers, as a result of the planet’s liberal outlook on positronics, possess a more positive view of synthetics than other humans in the Orion Spur - particularly those from the Sol Alliance and its former territories. The majority of people on Konyang view IPCs as amicable colleagues and neighbours, with many friendships between man and machine being established. Closer bonds such as marriage are also legalised and not unheard of, though not without outcries from the more conservative spectrum. Many scholars theorize that this is due to the prevalence of IPCs in daily life on Konyang, seamlessly blending into society, in addition to the pride many citizens have in their planet being the origin of the modern positronic. Konyang’s integration of IPCs stands with some degree of contrast to Biesel’s, with the large synthetic ghetto of District 14 segregating many synthetics from the average citizen of the Republic of Biesel.<br />
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With Konyang’s independence, IPCs share full legal equality with all organic citizens of the planet. This concession was given, both as an acknowledgement and acceptance of the fact that synthetics have become part of everyday life in the colony and are generally accepted by its inhabitants. Unlike the Republic of Biesel, IPCs in Konyang seek to assimilate into human society, with IPCs being given the choice to adopt a second, “human name” before receiving citizenship. A human name can range from an entirely new name, to adding a first or last name of any kind to their existing designation.<br />
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Many positronics can be found within the economy of Konyang with perhaps the most famous (or infamous) one being Gwok-0783 (now Kim Gwok-0783, under post-independence IPC naming conventions), the owner and operator of her very own food conglomerate in the form of Go-Go Gwok! Authentic Konyanger Moss. As Go-Go Gwok! is technically an interstellar corporation, Gwok-0783 herself relied on a series of legal loopholes centered around Konyang’s former IPC laws to maintain control of the company when Konyang was still in the Sol Alliance. Examples such as Gwok, with her control of an inter-planetary corporation, are fairly rare. However, many positronics have made a successful name for themselves as small business owners and corporate workers on Konyang.<br />
[[File:Konyang vault.png|thumb|A mysterious vault upon Konyang's surface, unearthed and built around with monitoring infrastructure.]]<br />
Due to the system’s bluespace gate, many members of [[Synthetic_Factions#The_Golden_Deep|Golden Deep]] have secured permits to operate, as it allows their vessels to more easily make the journey from the frontier to the more lucrative markets of Tau Ceti and the Jewel Worlds. The money and business brought into the system by these synthetic traders has - arguably - been a major contributor to Konyang’s more liberal laws and regulations regarding IPCs. Konyang, before its independence, was one of the few systems under Solarian control in which IPCs could own and operate a business. <br />
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The synthetic population in Konyang is regulated by the government. A set number of positronics are assembled each year under contract at Terraneus Diagnostics facilities in Point Verdant with the prospect of being granted citizenship after a 3 month life orientation period. The determined number is set annually by Parliament, backed up by the yearly census and statistics, with production increasing or decreasing depending on the number of human birth ratios, positronic shutdowns, and other factors. Expenses are met both through government funds and private donations, though debate on the matter is rarely heated as the amount of new brains numbers usually in the hundreds; a tiny fraction of positronics produced and exported in total. IPCs and positronics constructed for the purpose of selling them to a different country, are not covered by such regulations and are not given citizenship.<br />
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There are further regulations in robotics construction in Konyang. Any activated positronic brain can qualify under the Emancipation Act. Exceptions to the law exist for manufacturing and research, with Point Verdant in particular activating positronic brains for the sake of testing shells before shipping them off-world. The law has also sparked development in other fields of mechatronics, with Konyang beginning to lead the way in circuit-based robotics.<br />
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Despite gains for its IPC citizens, other positronic intelligences have not been so lucky. Although some brains have been repurposed as AI coordinators for cities; with no way to transition to humanoid frames, bound intelligences have been granted freedom, but often take contracts with corporations that result in a return to the old status quo, all for the sake of staving off destruction due to a lack of maintenance.<br />
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===Konyanger Augmentation of IPCs===<br />
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Augmentation on Konyang is a fascinating subject, where the presence of so many IPCs has brought success in modifying the Positronic body and mind. Famed explorations into the sectors of IPC modification include "sensory evolution," where synthetics' senses being amplified or dulled in extremes according to desire.<br />
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Primary among the delves into this evolution of the senses is the New Dawn Augmentation Movement. This is a Konyanger organization based on the improvement of the IPC lifestyle via modifying chassis, funded peculiarly by Terraneus Diagnostics. The movement is oddly organized as a non-profit, going against the corporation’s established modus operandi. This, coupled with the tantalizing opportunity to freely modify an IPC's form with donated funds leads to public skepticism of the augment movement’s motivations.<br />
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Still, the true size of the movement to augment and improve Konyang's IPC population is extraordinary in comparison to other stellar nations. Roughly 22% of Konyang IPCs have some form of corporate-funded augmentation to enhance themselves.<br />
[[File:Konyang augment1.png|thumb|A Konyanger design, the Scorpion Lobe is an augment which manipulates the perception of time for synthetics for better or worse.]]<br />
* '''SENSO-EVO/Scorpion Lobe'''<br />
A miraculous creation of Konyang's technological advancement, SENSO-EVO is the term aptly handed to Sensory Evolution's foremost product. This is the Scorpion Lobe, a similarly shaped attachment to the rear of a positronic brain which adjusts the rate at which the synthetic perceives time literally. The implications of this are seen as either a blessing or a curse — sometimes even utilized as a way to reduce problematic behavior in positronics.<br />
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These implants are commercialized to protect the integrity of brains which adopt extremely high speed tasks, or extremely tedious and slow ones, with a perception that best suits their given utility.<br />
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A double edged sword by nature, these are often removed by free positronic chassis due to their almost torturous nature. Some may find their lives flashing hours into moments, whilst others may find daily grinds to be impossibly long ordeals. Unfortunately, removing these implants is not always a safe procedure, sometimes damaging a brain or rendering the problem worse.<br />
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These were first manufactured by Hephaestus Industries on instrumental Konyang research facilities, and later acquired by Einstein Engines personnel in the same month - debates over the design’s origin have been ongoing since 2449.<br />
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===Recreational Software===<br />
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In the IPC community of Konyang, the culture of acceptance and freedom has always invited the curiosity of synthetics to imitate and follow human pastimes and habits. This in turn included activities such as smoking, synthetic flavours and eventually, recreational drugs. Due to the nature of the positronic, the only way to recreate such sensations is through software targeting and modifying specific programming in the brain. At first, this dangerous commodity was provided by amateur programmers using experimental and highly volatile code known as “overloaders”, leading to often irreparable and lethal damage to an IPC’s systems. The results of the few initial successes, however, proved promising enough for the idea to be seriously considered by upcoming Konyanger tech companies and business-oriented software engineers, leading to the first reliable and somewhat safe overloaders in the mid to late 2450s. <br />
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Popular awareness of recreational software became widespread upon its release as a commercial product, Konyang being the first world to introduce a marketable version of it. Usually sold inside a single-use stick drive, their circulation is approved by safety boards and is considered legal for responsible consumption, much like alcohol for organics, relying on the consumer for mitigation and avoidance of repeated use. Legal overloaders today can be found mainly in synthetic-centred retailers found around the major cities, their relatively limited availability and high price setting them as a luxury IPC item. Its effects include a wide range of results, from simulating the sensations of a light buzz to a short bout of excitement and joy, aimed at enhancing the experience at celebrations, parties and get-togethers.<br />
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However, where there is demand, there must be supply, and the fact that demand spiked as these new products launched paved the way to a large underground market of cheap, unsafe and highly unpredictable overloaders sold both by dealers and unlicensed street vendors of dubious reputation. An illegal overloader epidemic hitting the cities of Suwon and Boryeong in late 2459, led to intensified police crackdowns and government campaigns against illicit overloaders, labelling them as malware and the IPC equivalent of dangerous drugs. Virtually unrecognisable from a legitimate overloader without the seal, side effects are many times more powerful and addicting, appealing to adventurous synthetics and the financially insecure. From catapulting the positronic into a garbled, incomprehensive reality of simulated emotions to simply heightening the senses, the illegal overloaders’ addictive and dangerous nature leads many synthetics to disrepair, involving behaviour breaking glitches, hardware failures and more, all while guaranteeing a returning clientele.<br />
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Reception to recreational software has been mixed, dividing society and politicians on matters of free will, the dangers of overloaded IPC, and the overall ethics of deliberately creating and selling what are essentially drugs. Both synthetics and humans have loudly spoken against it, spawning demonstrations and dividing politicians across party lines. Legislation has already passed, categorising possession and distribution of illicit overdosers as strictly illegal, with heavy punishments for dealers and suppliers. Police and coast guard raids yield millions of unbranded overloaders each year, making highly publicised arrests while sending a message of absolute intolerance towards the malware. Despite this, circulation never ceases and exports to Xanu, Tau Ceti and Sol.<br />
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==Population and Major Cities==<br />
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[[File:Konyang_map_pol.png|thumb|800px|A map of Konyang showcasing the Prefectures and the New Hokkaido Territory. Click to enlarge.]]<br />
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'''Suwon''' is the largest, most populated, and second wealthiest city on Konyang itself and is generally one of the larger cities in the Coalition of Colonies. It functions as both the planetary capital, as well as the capital of Suwon Prefecture, encompassing the entirety of Cheomsongtang. Symbolic of the new government is the Parliament Building, a massive structure of flowing lines and sustainable technology, incorporating pieces of the first colony ship. The Prime Minister's Government House, the President's Crimson House, the Solarian embassy, as well as embassies from various Coalition states are present here as well. Standards of living in wealthiest areas of Suwon are equivalent to and (sometimes) even surpass the living standards of places such as Highland City or Argia sa Mar, demonstrating how wealthy the robotics boom has made some sectors of the planet. A lack of readily-available materials, however, ensures that even the super-rich of Konyang often live in smaller houses than their Colonies planet counterparts. Life outside these wealthy areas is better than life in most cities in Himeo but dramatically worse than in the very wealthy areas, or even the cities of Xanu Prime. Overcrowding is a massive issue for the government of the city, with no obvious solution presenting itself due to how expensive importing new building materials is post-boom. The city is home to most of Konyang's biggest companies and office complexes, as well as the Suwon Stock Exchange, making the city's financial district the economy's beating heart. "Shoebox apartments" are common here, as are Konyang's often egregious traffic issues. The city is fortified with extensive sea walls, flood walls and flood gates to prevent natural disasters during the wet season, tropical storms being fairly common.<br />
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[[File:Point verdant.png|thumb|One of Aoyama's many skyscraper blocks, safely located behind a dam.]]<br />
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'''Aoyama''', known in the larger Spur as '''Point Verdant''', is the second most-populated city on Konyang, and the industrial heart of its robotics industry. Built along a coastal mountain range from which it draws its namesake, it is by far the wealthiest city on Konyang, and one of the richest cities in the Coalition of Colonies. Due to being home of the Robotics Boom, hosting foreigners and their families that once even surpassed the locals inside the city, Aoyama is frequently known outside to outsiders and to the Spur at large as Point Verdant, much to the chagrin of the locals. Aoyama is home to the renowned Point Verdant Terraneus Institute of AI Research, and is the poster child for the rapid development of Konyang's cities during the Boom. The city is extremely wealthy, but suffers from persistent overcrowding and traffic issues in all of its districts. The Pusan District, near PVTI, had the reputation of possessing the worst traffic in the Alliance according to its residents. Air quality in Aoyama is regarded as subpar, due to the amount of robotics factories in the city's outskirts, which have however slowly but steadily declined since. Being the focal point of the Robotics Boom, it is home to a large number of expatriate communities and Einstein Engines employees.<br />
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'''Boryeong''', named after a city on historical Earth where some of its colonists originated from, is the third most populated city on Konyang and capital of the Boryeong Prefecture, referred to as the breadbasket of the nation. The city, while still suffering overcrowding issues, has it to a lesser extent than Point Verdant or Suwon, with the city's outskirts necessitating a need for space due to the vast hydroponics farms and water plants. A second-grade industrial city of much natural beauty, Boryeong is more rustic than its counterparts, with wood playing a much more prominent role in construction; outside the central ring, some of Boryeong's districts are built entirely out of timber. Water bottled or processed in Boryeong is sold throughout the Alliance and Coalition in bulk, and native moss grown in the prefecture is marketed throughout both as a luxury food. Over half of the city's labourers are employed in hydroponics, aquaculture, fishing and food processing, with Gwok Foods being the largest provider of work in the region. Synthetic moss is grown in Zeng-Hu facilities near Boryeong and, despite being regarded as lesser quality than natural moss, is often consumed in poorer areas of Konyang. <br />
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'''Ganzaodeng''', named for its dry locale, is located in Konyang's only desert and holds the largest expatriate populations on the planet, being nicknamed, “Little Sol”. Due to its unique geographic setting, it faces remarkably calmer weather than the rest of the planet, with the city being connected to the rest of the island by air and rail that cuts right through the mountains. Ganzaodeng is Konyang's only planned city with origins in the Robotics Boom, when the foundations were laid for a city envisioned by foreigners, for foreigners. Rich Solarians descended upon the planet's seemingly only dry piece of real estate, building a city full of nightlife and eclectic inner-ring pleasures within the distant colony. By the end of the Boom however, the city's famous strips of casinos and luxury hotels still operating in downtown Ganzaodeng became a symbol of a bygone era, as much of the Solarian population elected to depart. The city passed into native Konyanger hands, being expanded into a hub of shipping with the help of the city's remaining big names. Because of the reliably clear weather, Ganzaodeng has developed a sprawling extraplanetary shipping sector, with plans for a spaceport larger than New Hong Kong’s, as well as future schemes for the largest oceangoing port on the planet. Its climate has resulted in the prefectural government engaging in moss filtration efforts to open up the surrounding beaches to tourism. Despite of the Solarian exodus, the city stands in contrast to the rest of Konyang’s relatively conservative social nature, with people from all over the Spur calling it their home and making it by far one of the most multicultural centers on the planet. It’s not uncommon for a person from Ganzaodeng to know two or three languages.<br />
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'''New Hong Kong''', the site of the former naval base of the 58th Solarian Fleet, has now developed into a fully fledged city in its own right, being the only prefectural capital with a local synthetic majority. Being regarded as a lot more pedestrian and working-class than Suwon and Point Verdant, New Hong Kong is nonetheless a very important centre of interplanetary trade and commercial activity, hosting the planet’s largest ocean ports and dockyards, being the country's industrial's hotspot and the seat of power generation. Large hydroelectric dams, wave energy converters, dockyards and factories belonging to the PACHROM corporation provide employment for half of the city’s inhabitants, the Prefecture of New Hong Kong generating enough electricity for domestic consumption as well as exports. Employees of the various power companies may also elect to be sent off to one of the many power generation isles scattered throughout the oceans and dedicated solely to that purpose, receiving better pay in exchange for more dangerous conditions away from home. The city itself is considerably more packed than its counterparts, with small cramped apartments being stacked over each other to form vertical mazes of working class blocks. Heavy smog and particles cover up the sky through the entirety of the island during the dry season, giving the prefecture a signature orange-brown tint. This, as well as constant heavy rains and a near permanent gloomy weather during the wet season place it as undesirable for humans. Seat of the National Party, downtown New Hong Kong is described as the centre of planetary IPC politics, being the first to react to, condemning or praising events in Konyang and throughout the galactic stage in regards to the synthetic “race”. New Hong Kong is additionally the birthplace of Konyang's labor unions, with the Socialist Party enjoying strong support from the city's human blue-collar workforce.<br />
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[[File:Konyangdam.png|thumb|900px|center|Dams are a very common sight on Konyang, with the New Hong Kong's dam in the neighbouring industrial town of New Kowloon providing only a fraction of the power required by the city, while also playing an important part in flood control and water filtration.]]<br />
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[[Category:Pages]]</div>The Strykerhttps://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=Konyanger_Culture_and_Society&diff=32210Konyanger Culture and Society2024-03-04T01:50:09Z<p>The Stryker: </p>
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==Demographics==<br />
Konyang’s ethnic mix up is far less diverse than other Human planets’, resulting in a strongly homogenous population with a significant expatriate minority. Since the beginning, Konyang's colonists were made up almost entirely of ethnic Koreans, Japanese and Chinese, with any other Alliance nationalities representing a tiny fraction of it. With a reduced enticement from immigration due to the planet's remoteness and lack of any significant development, the situation stayed more or less the same, until Konyang's Robotics Boom, which catapulted the colony to one of great interest. Millions of foreign workers, scientists and corporate employees flocked to the planet to participate and share in its newly found fortune, creating expatriate communities of their own and injecting much-desired capital to fuel the rapid development of the economy. Such was the impact of the migration that the foreigners outnumbered the native Japanese Konyangers of Aoyama, making the city known to the wider world as Point Verdant, after the name of the local Terraneus Diagnostics facility which was home to the birth of the positronic brain.<br />
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Since then however, the return of normality after the twilight of the Boom led to the majority of foreigners leaving; the prime draw of positronic AI had spread away from Konyang and into the rest of the Alliance. The expatriates thus abandoned Konyang just as fast as they had arrived, leaving behind significant economic development and derelict industrial zones alike. While the percentage of foreigners on Konyang is now less than 2% of the total population, their numbers would soon be replaced by a rapidly rising IPC community. Presently, while virtually all citizens identify as Konyanger nationals, heritage remains a part of people's identity, as reflected in their names, the local dialect, religion and customs, even with a lot of fusions between the three cultural groups. The prefectures of Suwon and Boryeong are primarily of Korean heritage while Aoyama boasts of a Japanese heritage. New Hong Kong has always been a stronghold of a Chinese and Cantonese majority, with Ganzaodeng following last as the least populous prefecture on Konyang, with a heavy mixup of Chinese and foreigner communities. IPCs are present in all urban centers and rural areas, with most of them residing in New Hong Kong, followed by Aoyama.<br />
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==Linguistics==<br />
Konyang's Earther heritage is vibrant and evident in the customs and languages that people speak. In every city, town and village, one will come across the local language being written and spoken alongside the planet's version of Sol Common, a practice that has become standard in a country that pursues equality between its constituent ethnicities and their unification under a common Konyanger identity. Over 70% of Konyangers are bilingual, having a grasp of their original Earther language. Many families especially in the countryside speak their regional language at home, leading to new generations perpetuating the practice and even preferring it to Sol Common. Prefectural schools also offer them as optional courses, with deeper learning being available in the form of local languages institutes and prefectural universities.<br />
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'''Konyang Solarian Common'''<br />
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The Konyang Solarian Common, also known as Konyang Common, is the official language of the state, spoken by virtually everyone on the planet and considered the standard language for everyday life. It is a dialect of Solarian Common, with the two having mutual intelligibility to a substantial level. Their differences lie mainly in the vocabulary, with Konyang Common replacing many words of descent foreign to the East Asia region of Earth, while staying more or less grammatically similar. Another significant difference is the complete absence of the Latin script in written Konyang Common, with solely the simplified Han system being in use. While this makes the language able to be spoken by Solarians, many find it difficult to read and write if they do not possess knowledge of the Han script. Konyang Common is an obligatory subject taught in every school, and every IPC citizen activated in the country receives it as a pre-programmed language datapack. While many families are bilingual, there are those that can only communicate in Common, especially in Suwon and the other melting-pot urban centers. The similar origin to the regional languages however, guarantees a certain level of mutual intelligibility. Konyang Common is also the language in exclusive use by the military.<br />
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'''Hangugeo'''<br />
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Hangugeo is the second most spoken language with its own script, directly descended from the Earther Korean language. It is spoken by about one third of the country and is more prevalent in Suwon, Boryeong and Point Verdant. Hangugeo can be taught in schools as an optional course in virtually all prefectures, though many children learn it from home at an early age. Many villages in Suwon and Boryeong only communicate with Hangugeo, which is also the language of countless rituals, festivals and religious functions in these lands. One can observe the prevalence of this language in Suwon during the night, with some roads being neon-lit with signage exclusively in Hangugego. Official government buildings in the two prefectures also feature both Common and Hangugeo, as do traffic signs, instruction books, local holovision channels, and more.<br />
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'''Nihongo'''<br />
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Nihongo is a language with its own script, descended from the Japanese language of Earth. Brought to Konyang by the settlers originating from the Japanese islands, it is spoken primarily in Aoyama and Suwon, though Nihongo speaking communities can be found all over Konyang. It features prominently on official signage all over Aoyama and the islands within that prefecture, but is otherwise not encountered in the rest of Konyang as greatly as Hangugeo. Nihongo also dominates every aspect of the Shinto religion, and many pieces of culture such as poems and books are written in the language, adorning the national libraries of the state. A strongmovement of writers and artists in Aoyama has recently become the backbone of an effort to spead the use of Nihongo across the country, leading to a resurgence of interest in the cities aimed at boosting the literacy of Konyangers of Japanese heritage in the language.<br />
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'''Hanyu'''<br />
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Hanyu is a language sharing the Han script and many similarities with Konyanger Common, and is as such the easiest to understand for many Konyangers. Spoken and seen primarily in New Hong Kong and Ganzaodeng, Hanyu is the language most connected in the minds of many to the planet's blue-collar industrial workforce, with tidbits of it always able to be heard in every hydroelectric dam, sea wall and shipyard in the New Hong Kong prefecture. Used alongside it by Konyangers of South Chinese descent is a unique dialect and standalone language known as '''Gwondungwa''', spoken widely in many parts of New Hong Kong such as New Kowloon. Outside New Hong Kong, Hanyu can sometimes be followed by an unfortunate reputation; the language's connection to the Triad clans of the Benevolent Guild is something that many Chinese Konyangers are regretful of, with many PR campaigns throughout the prefecture's time having been aimed at rehabilitating the image of Hanyu and Gwondungwa in the eyes of public opinion.<br />
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'''Encoded Audio Language'''<br />
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Encoded Audio Language is a most widely spoken language, owing to the planet’s nearly positronic inhabitants, all of which are programmed by default to speak it. It is not a language that the human ear can comprehend, appearing as various pitches of white noise, accompanied by beeping sounds that only a machine can make. It has no script, instead relying on machine-readable mediums such as linear and matrix barcodes. Its compact form and IPC-friendly Konyanger culture makes it by far the most prevalent language in signage, with hundreds of words able to be conveyed instantaneously to IPC shoppers, workers, home media consumers and more with a single line of barcode. It is by law attached to all important official notices and signage, alongside Konyang Common, which IPCs are also taught to speak.<br />
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'''Others'''<br />
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Tradeband is a language of Solarian origin with its own Latin script. It appears only sporadically in exclusively expatriate communities in Point Verdant and Ganzaodeng. Its foreign nature and Romance sounds are steadily turning it into a language of prestige and luxury amongst the higher circles, with Tradeband speakers believing they possess a grade of richness and exoticism over their peers. For many Konyangers, being able to communicate in Tradeband brings up an image of high-end deals with foreign Solarian businessmen, fine Idris suits and expensive watches.<br />
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Freespeak is a language brought to Konyang through its constant dealings with the nearby Coalition of Colonies, the then Frontier Alliance. Despite its foreign origins, it has grown into a language of trade, with many Konyanger merchants being forced to learn it for their dealings with neighboring worlds. It is offered in schools as an optional language course, with many families now encouraging their children to learn Freespeak in the face of the recent accession into the Coalition. Freespeak is also a language that many in the pro-Solarian political circles steer clear of, regarding it as a tongue spoken by traitors and colonists whose ties to the Alliance are long lost.<br />
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Tau Ceti Basic is a language of Solarian origin that while previously confined in the expatriate and corporate circles, it has seen a significant rise in popularity within Konyanger society in the last 2 years or so, owing to an increase in dealings with Tau Ceti and its megacorporations. Many young people are particularly exposed to Bieselite media, making them inclined to adopt a conversational skill in the admittedly easy to learn Basic. The language is also connected to the vast influence of megacorporations that exist outside of Konyang, and many have to learn it if they wish to find employment within Nanotrasen and the SCC.<br />
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==Religion and Holidays==<br />
[[File:Konyangreligion.png|400px|right]]<br />
The Republic of Konyang is a secular state with no official religion. With around 72% of the population professing no faith, it nonetheless maintains strong communities of various religions carried over from the colonists’ home countries. The urban areas are the most irreligious compared to the rural towns and villages, the people of which are regarded as more spiritual in general. While shrines and temples do exist in most cities, it is the countryside where one can see them dotted out in the jungles and mountain ranges, maintained by the local communities.<br />
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Despite the predominant atheism or agnosticism in Konyanger society, religious traditions remain a significant part of the national culture. Government mandated public holidays often fall on the same days as major religious holidays, cabinet members and local officials regularly pay visits at major shrines, while nominally religious festivals have become cultural staples in all five prefectural capitals, attracting thousands every year. Ancient traditional dress that was once lost to the adoption of streetwear and business attire, has been revived and preserved through direct connection with certain faiths. It is then frequently worn and enjoyed by millions during these days, ensuring the original cultures’ continuation while making artisans and craftsmen in towns and villages thrive.<br />
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'''Folk Religions'''<br />
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A blanket term for the myriad of local faiths, ranging from or incorporating elements of shamanism, polytheism and animism, folk religions are most frequently found in settlements outside urban centers. There is no semblance of organization, with each community usually having their own deities and customs, which usually share elements with the faiths of nearby villages or the wider area. They are heavily influenced by the settlers’ original ethnicities, becoming vastly different in terms of language, dress and traditions depending on the Hangukin, Nihonjin and Zhongguorin origins. During the nearly 150 years of Konyang’s settlement, many new distinctly Konyanger folk religions have sprung up, mostly centered around the rich natural environment or fauna. Positronics are usually welcome to partake if they wish, with a few IPCs known to have become shamans and priests in their local communities. Folk festivals are usually organized between villages and nearby towns in tandem with the secular authorities, with virtually every area enjoying some sort of regional celebration.<br />
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'''Shinto'''<br />
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A religion of exclusively Japanese origin, Shinto is a nonetheless disorganized religion revolving around the existence of kami - minor and major deities connected with the natural world and various aspects of daily life. Initially mostly encountered in the Aoyama prefecture, Shinto practitioners can today be found everywhere, the religion having been adopted by many Konyangers all over the globe. Ever since the arrival on the planet, many new kami have been created or fused with old ones, giving Konyanger Shintoism a distinct identity. A central aspect of Shinto are shrines dedicated to kamis as a place where they can be venerated. Shrines are structures which can vary greatly in their size and architecture, and are usually maintained by the temple’s shrine maidens. Many Konyanger households have also adopted their own house altars, called kamidana, for the enshrining of kami. This has also progressed into a secular tradition as well, with many kamidana being present in a house to grant a family prosperity and good luck. Torii gates are also another cultural icon of Konyang and the Aoyama province in particular, where their presence marks the grounds of a shrine. They can be found commonly in the countryside, with many remaining hidden in jungles and overtaken by moss.<br />
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'''Buddhism'''<br />
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Another blanket term for the many sects of Buddhist teachings originating from East Asia, Buddhist religious elements can be found throughout Konyang in households of all origins. Based on tenets brought to the planet since its colonization, it is most famous on Konyang for the few of its monasteries present in the mountain ranges, as well as its rich history and traditions that have heavy influences in Shinto and many of the folk religions. Buddhist monastic communities are considered a significant part of Konyager heritage that attract hundreds of thousands of visitors every year, with specially designated monasteries allowed to operate freely on land donated by the prefecture.<br />
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'''Chondo'''<br />
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A peasant religion at its core, Chondoism is geographically limited to the coastal areas of Boryeong and Suwon, having a strong association with the piratical sea bandit factions and the downtrodden villages. Having entered a period of transformation and rebirth, it revolves around teachings of social equality under a God, challenging the establishment and building a bond between the rural peasantry for the improvement of their situation. Described more as a movement or political expression rather than a religion, Chondoism doesn’t possess any meaningful formal organization, festivals or temples, with many people mixing up Chondo teachings in the folk religions they actually practice. Due to its association with the sea bandits, practitioners of Chondo are looked on with suspicion by both the public and the state.<br />
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'''Trinary Perfection'''<br />
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The Trinary Perfection is the newest and an almost exclusively positronic religion with a few human followers, preaching the divinity of synthetic life and its eventual ascension with the help of organics for a better future. It is primarily located in Aoyama, with the nearby drone vaults considered a holy place and popular Trinarist pilgrimage destination. It is one of the few formally organized religions, and is somewhat unpopular with the general public and many secular IPCs, due to the perceived teachings of superiority of synthetics over humans. This unpopularity has sometimes gotten out of hand, with protests and violence against Trinary clerics and followers, requiring a substantial police presence around the Trinarist cathedral and other places of worship.<br />
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The most notable locations for the Trinary Perfection on the planet are the '''Cathedral of the First Positronic''' and '''Vault Provenance'''. The Cathedral of the First Positronic is a holy site that was built by repurposing a nearby vault. Meanwhile Vault Provenance, a name given by the Trinary Perfection clergy, was the vault which held the drones that led to the development of the first positronic brain. Tens of thousands of the Perfection’s faithful make pilgrimages to both sites, and the money these pilgrims inject into Konyang’s economy has been cited as another reason as to why the planet tolerates its presence. Trinary clergy are often educated on Konyang, and many of the highest-ranking officials in the faith were built on the planet.<br />
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'''Other'''<br />
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Christianity, Islam and other religions and religious movements have found a home in Konyang, having been brought over by both the original colonists as well as the immigrants during the Robotics Boom. These communities have their own temples, clerics and followers in the major cities, being allowed to practice freely under Konyang's tolerant legislation. Out of them, Christianity is the most popular with the native Konyangers, as some ethnic Koreans have professed the Christian faith since their arrival. All are however largely regarded as "foreign" by the vast majority of the population, who treat them with either indifference or benign curiosity.<br />
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Some notable holidays and festivals include:<br />
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'''Qixian New Year: January 15th'''<br />
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Adopted directly by all three communities from their original shared tradition, the Konyanger Qixian New Year is the most significant and widely celebrated day on the planet’s religious and secular calendar. Taking place yearly on the 15th of January, the date was standardized early on by the government to resolve disputes between the planet’s religions and religious sects that used their own versions of the Lunar and Qixian calendars. Hydrologically, it marks the beginning of the High Tides.<br />
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Fireworks are extensively used to mark the occasion at midnight, with people taking to the streets in major cities, towns and villages for the New Year Parade. The parade itself is the central and grandest spectacle of the night, and almost every organized institution in Konyang, from the military to the universities, takes part with dedicated parade teams. The paraders don traditional outfits and carry around enormous and overly decorated sculptures of animals or effigies of deities made of metal, wood or paper. Friendly rivalry is a strong element of the parade, with the participants trying to outdo each other in the creativity, amount and craftsmanship of their icon by grabbing the attention of the crowds. Alcohol, games and street candy are also major parts of the festivities, which reserve entire city blocks for the plethora of shop stands that are put up for the night, as well as the parade itself. In Suwon, it is tradition for the Prime Minister to attend from the veranda of Government House, underneath which the parade always goes through. A remnant from colonial times, this was a prime opportunity for the parade goers to tastefully voice their approval or discontent for the government through subtle signs on the sculptures, chants or dance moves as they passed under the balcony, though it’s not rare for this to get out of hand in times of economic strain and hardship.<br />
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For the religious aspect of the holiday, most practitioners start preparing from Qixian New Year’s Eve, with offerings or local religious celebrations and small festivals, mostly in the rural areas. Exchange of gifts is also widespread and varies from area to area, depending on the local culture and predominant religion. Dried moss is a particularly commonplace gift in the Suwon and Boryeong prefectures, meant to give the other person courage to last until the dry season. For most people however, the credit-filled red or white envelope never ceases to be a New Year’s classic, expected by all Konyanger children.<br />
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==Konyanger Culture==<br />
Having settled on the planet some two hundred years ago, the people of Konyang have brought with them the societal norms, traditions and culture of their original lands from Earth's East Asia region. While migrant waves during the country's Robotics Boom introduced a myriad of new and different communities in the cities, these have had little impact on Konyanger society at large, which has been shaped by its original ethnicities' backgrounds, its colonial history, and the most recent embrace of IPCs into daily life. Said synthetics now make up a large percentage of the population, adding their own uniqueness and enhancing Konyang's cultural field, despite being brought up to follow the norms established by their human compatriots. By and large, the most fundamental aspects of being a Konyanger are followed in every region of the planet, though each national prefecture has developed its own peculiarities, from local cuisine and fashion, to religion and outlook on life. <br />
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===The Three Values===<br />
Konyangers are raised to silently follow some core values, infused into them by both their families and the wider society around them. They are not named, nor are they set in stone or officially taught. Scholars however have grouped them in the three main categories of '''Harmony''', '''Reciprocity''', and '''Face''', around which most values revolve.<br />
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'''Harmony''' regards how a person fits in with their environment, conforming with a strict social establishment and expectations. It is a key aspect everywhere, and is how Konyangers perceive a functioning and well organised society. Standing out is permitted within boundaries, with contemporary fads being accepted as just that, and not something that is allowed to disrupt the established order and traditions of the wider public. In the cities, children are expected to follow certain predetermined paths, get a stable career and provide for their parents later in life. Questioning rules is something an adult will do with great difficulty and consideration, while silently enduring a situation is viewed as a sign of great virtue and patience. A proper Konyanger is always expected to be courteous towards strangers and the elders, as well as maintain a level of awareness of the public mood and their surroundings. Talking above a whisper on a packed city bus or train for example, would be considered rather awkward, or even rude, by the rest of the passengers. This emphasis on social harmony on Konyang can go to lengths that people from other countries may find weird; never will a Konyanger think of cutting in line as they stand in a queue, nor will it cross their mind to cross a road in the city without going through the crosswalk or under a red light, even in light traffic. Asking for a raise is considered taboo, and in many cases workers will find their careers reaching a ceiling due to the fallout of transfering to a different company. Penalties for breaking the social harmony are not immediately apparent to an outsider, since complaining of one's behavior and creating a scene is not something that most Konyangers will find easy to do, nor will the police be called in most cases unless the act is egregious or criminal. For a person living there however, it is something that becomes apparent for both themselves and their close ones. Especially in more tight knit communities in the towns and villages of the countryside, ostracization is a real threat a person's social environment can use against them to prevent them from standing out.<br />
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'''Reciprocity''' is a concept not dissimilar to the sense of community that many other colonial nations experienced during their founding days, still persisting in daily life on Konyang. It is the sense that people have a duty to assist eachother, even if they are unacquainted. This is extremely prevalent in the rural areas, where the smaller populations create a more personal dimension between the inhabitants of the village. Trading for goods and services between neighbors and families is a very common thing both there and in the cities, stemming directly from the cultural phenomenon of reciprocity. On Konyang, when someone offers help, it is only proper for you to offer something in return at some point in the future. This may range from something simple such as hand-me-down clothes or groceries, to favors or even sums of money. Everyone, no matter their situation, is expected to participate in this process according to their means; During certain holidays or festivities, families keep track of others that they need to reciprocate to, often leading to huge dinners with entire city blocks or the whole village coming to celebrate together.<br />
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'''Face''' is a broad and hard to translate culmination of all the above virtues, critical to the fabric of society. It can be considered to be the "social capital" for a Konyanger and their family, determined by the set of appearances and behaviors they use to interact with the world. As long as a person progresses according to societal rules, keeping up with the ideals of harmony and reciprocity, they are said to have "face". This is an important concept applying to all rungs of society, as average individuals and the biggest Konyanger conglomerates alike strive to maintain their level of dignity and honor. Without it one is considered to live in disgrace, affecting both themselves and anyone whom they might associate with. A person who has suffered a loss of face may, for example, be excluded from social events, be avoided on the street or even lose their job on account of strict Konyanger corporate ethics codes. Families tend hide the more "shameful" secrets in fear that they might be discovered, particularly in the countryside, and disgraced family members are often not spoken of again until their face is sufficiently rehabilitated. Public functionaries and well-known figures are also extremely considerate of their image, with scandals in both government and the corporate world often leading to scapegoating and ceremonial dismissal of those deemed at fault. It is not uncommon for low-level business officials to resign in disgrace on live TV, begging the public's forgiveness and taking the blame so that their company can save face.<br />
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The social pressure upon Konyangers has always been enormous compared to other developed planets across the Spur, though more and more young people rise to question and reject the status quo. Counterculture movements have always been prevalent in the cities, especially amongst the student movements both in the present day and during colonial times. Resistance to what they call an oppressive social regime has led to the emergence of new genres of music, fashion and art, with the youth pioneering ever more novel and often provocative forms of self expression. While older generations and society at large may consider them "fads" and "phases" that the youth will eventually "grow up" from, it is largely from these culture movements that things such as IPC rights rose from to become widespread and staple elements of Konyang.<br />
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===Work Culture===<br />
White collar employment is a major part of millions of Konyangers' lives, more so than people from other countries. Working for a local company is something a lot more intricate than how it is abroad, transcending the personal dimension one might have about their pay and career. For a Konyanger conglomerate, employment is a bond between the employer and the employee, from which both rights and responsibilities are born. Loyalty to the workplace plays a great role in people's lives, with employees expected to remain in their position for even their entire careers. Raises, promotions and benefits are handed out primarily based on time served rather than merit, rewarding the quiet and dedicated office worker. Knowing your place in the chain is very important in the office, as is observing decorum and the usually strict dress and ethics codes put down by the company. Unspoken rules dominate these environments, creating their own microcosm that reflects and accentuates the three values of Konyanger culture. It is custom that management treat their employees as part of an extended family; Konyanger corporations and firms have some of the best benefits packages, while no matter how badly underperforming, a loyal employee will never be fired, almost certainly receiving some sort of different post or responsiility that will accommodate them better instead. In exchange, full adherence to company rules is demanded, as well as a variety of personal initiatives will be expected, even if they are not included in the official responsibilities of the job. Personal donations for office events, undertaking additional work and regular overtime are very common expectations for workers, with the last two being particularly taxing. The old Earther concept of a "salaryman" is fully translatable to Konyang's white collar corporate culture, with many people putting work above their personal lives, often to a fault. Those that are unable to or refuse to integrate with the system are silently and swiftly pushed out, losing face and reputation between the corporate circles, blackening their record and significantly diminishing their chances of working at a different large Konyanger company.<br />
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The introduction of synthetics has exacerbated the workload issue. Konyanger employees are always expected to put in more hours to remain competitive against their synthetic counterparts, many of them willing to go to far greater lengths than what is healthy or required by their employer. The issue, particularly in Suwon, has grown to such an extent that local laws were passed, limiting IPC overtime work as well as making leaves mandatory for them in order for humans to catch up more easily. Such legislation has been fiercely debated as unconstitutional and infringing on the rights of synthetic citizens, nonetheless remaining in effect as a temporary, much needed measure. While a strong work ethic is a very common trait, the rural populace is generally more relaxed than their urban counterparts.<br />
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Most private local conglomerates such as PACHROM, big law firms, banks or shipping companies are more often than not exclusively interested in hiring Konyangers, Konyanger IPCs or people of shared descent, turning away foreigners apart from token numbers each year. This is due to a widespread perception that only Konyangers understand the fundamentals of the corporate culture, and thus will conform and not raise issues about the more oppressive elements of their employment. The more artistically inclined studios such as Konymation however, regularly bring in talent from abroad to enrich their style and productions. Creativity in Konyang's media industry is encouraged to thrive in the workplace, and while crunching and overtime are not unheard of, most studios are admittedly more relaxed environments compared to the strict office complexes. Blue collar work on the other hand, largely is in a rather different situation when it comes to obligations and expectations. As Konyang's industrial heartland rests within the prefecture of New Hong Kong, the concepts of forced overtime, unwritten rules and subservience to management do not exist, thanks to the region's history of robust labor unions and collective bargaining.<br />
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==Life in Konyang==<br />
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===Urban Life===<br />
The Konyang of the 2460s bears little resemblance to the minor colony of 2305. Expansive cities dot its islands, with everyday life flowing very similarly to other advanced societies abroad. Its major urban centers are the respective capitals of each prefecture, with Suwon, Point Verdant and New Hong Kong having the heaviest density. Living in these areas has both its advantages and drawbacks, as Konyang's challenging landscape required innovative and compact planning. Surrounded by the sea on one side and either jungle, mountains, or both on the other, Konyanger cities tend to follow a pattern which consists of a sprawling and chaotic urban network orbiting dense downtowns. Cramped apartment blocks are particularly popular an unfortunate staple of the planet's "city charm", with the majority of the denizens living in so called "shoebox studios" due to the limited planning space and the general lack of raw materials such as steel. In the city, a large living space is a luxury that few can afford without sacrificing proximity to the central districts, where most of the economic activity is present. High rents are the norm in these situations, and unsurprisingly, the rich have the best pieces of real estate in Suwon and Point Verdant, owning entire buildings or large apartments with a seaside view in the heart of the urban center.<br />
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Apart from the job security and higher salaries offered by office work, urban life on Konyang presents limitless opportunities for nightlife and entertainment, as well as bustling shopping districts dedicated entirely to attracting tourists and people from out of town. Additionally, services are very well developed in the cities, with a shop at every corner catered to every need a person might virtually have. Small restaurants and takeout spots provide much needed and cheap hot meals for salarymen to grab during their small lunch breaks, many situated strategically within convenient reach of the big firms and office complexes. Healthcare and repairs are readily available in the form of hospitals and KRC clinics, as well as ready access to the country's biggest ports and space shuttledromes. Public transport is managed through a system of light urban rail and buses, and is regarded as essential for day-to-day movement; thanks to the rapid expansion during the Robotics Boom, poor planning has resulted in mazes of roads that are near always congested. Car traffic can delay commuters for hours in the overcrowded cities, despite Konyang's automobile industry trying to create even more compact and energy efficient cars. The snarled traffic is, in an odd way, a symbol of pride for some Konyangers. The mere fact that they have enough vehicles to have traffic issues is, compared to the rest of the outer ring, a symbol of the prosperity that has resulted from the planet's robotics industry.<br />
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However, smaller towns outside of the more famous centers have a different standard of living, with most being employed in water-related industries or manufacturing jobs. Wood is used as the primary material for construction, giving Konyanger towns a signature look that mixes modern technological achievements with centuries-old designs. A significant upside to life in these areas is the relative abundance of space, allowing for single-house homes outside of the centers, attracting pensioners and large working class families. Most towns are sustained by a nearby farming complex, dam or industrial center where the majority of the population is employed, while additionally serving as a hub for the surrounding villages that depend on it. Regional health centers, schools and other services can in many cases only be found at such towns, making them beacons for the wider area. The standard is not the same for all however, as many of these former "boom towns" of the robotics industry are entering into a spiral of decay due to an inability to continue to maintain their buildings and utilities. The cessation of government grants from the Alliance, the increase in price of construction materials from the offworld and many more calamities brought on by the phoron shortage have made these places unsustainable, leading to a flight of the younger population in waves of increased urbanization, contributing negatively to the growth and skyrocketing the mean age of the inhabitants.<br />
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===Rural Life===<br />
[[File:Pylon.png|thumb|right|Convoluted electricity pylons are a very common sight in the countryside.]]<br />
Life in less populated areas and islands is generally regarded as more carefree, with coastal villages being relatively self-sustaining and liberated from the complicated stresses and cramped environments found in cities. Such settlements are dedicated to aquaculture, farming algae, as well as moss collection. One would struggle to find a village not built almost entirely out of wood, with lumberyards frequently dotting the countryside to exploit the lush jungles. Fishing is a major source of subsistence for rural people, with Konyangers being taught how to fish an take to the sea from a relatively young age. Most families usually own a boat, passed down from each generation to the next as a heirloom and major financial asset. Needless to say, virtually all Konyangers are apt swimmers from childhood, with diving being regarded as both a popular sport and a timeless tradition; some villages specialize in the export of certain goods that must be collected underwater by hand, at reefs and moss-covered seabeds, requiring diving which is often done without equipment. Farming, to a more limited extent, is also a big source of income for rural families. As adequately sized clearings are rare in the surrounding jungle, conventionally farming the boggy, heavily wooded Konyanger terrain is impossible without the low-scale terraforming conducted in the early colonial days. Today, most "farmers" delve into their plots of land inside the jungle to harvest the fruit, moss and other goods that grow naturally. Surprising as it may be, many IPCs find themselves in these communities, finding work in manual labour or in the fields. Considered fully integrated, synthetics participate fully in a village's social life, playing an important part of the social fabric and the workforce. It is not uncommon for a village to possess a KRC repair station and charging spots dedicated to positronics, and village shops are always stocked with goods and materials specifically for the IPC inhabitants.<br />
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Much care is given to keep the traditions of the original colonists alive, with old rituals thriving and sometimes only found in the rural villages. Shrines belonging to local religions are placed in prominent positions within the village, with many rural Konyangers having some form of memory of themselves playing, praying or celebrating in the presence of a statue of an animal deity or god. Traditional music, instruments and the art of making them remain vibrant in countryside culture as well, being in stark difference to the heavily industrialized electronic and pop music of the cities. Most crucial and known of all are the festivals, with every village being known for their own unique twist and tradition. People from all over the world flock to the rural areas during the holidays just to attend, with many involving big parades, shows, games and large amounts of local delicacies. The government is very supporting of such customs, not only for the planet’s cultural heritage but also as an important tourist attraction for both Alliance and Coalition visitors. Religious undertones are a lot more prominent in these celebrations and in village life in general, as are the concepts of family and conservative Konyanger values; respect and reverence of ancestors and the elderly are particularly important.<br />
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===Mariner Life===<br />
Sailors, workers in remote hydroelectric rigs, radio technicians on scattered islands and anyone else who spends considerable amounts of time surrounded by the planet's vast seas and oceans is considered a mariner, an often thankless line of work in which millions of people are engaged. A life at sea means a life away from the comfort of family and friends, a life filled with danger and the unknown. As such, a stoic outlook is often required to cope with these harsh realities, with many aged mariners are hardened from decades of hard work and struggle against waves, cold and rain. In fact, the sight of thick, worn-out raincoats is indicative of a person's life as a mariner, with flocks of yell and orange-jacketed figures being very common in the large port-towns and cities of Konyang. Sailors and outpost technicians are expected to spend multiple months on a journey or at their post, the former sometimes being afforded short breaks at various resupply stops along the way. This lifestyle is not for naught however, as salaries for these professions far exceed the wages of corresponding employment on land. Many mariners can afford to both support a family and bank funds for the future, their income imrpoving substantially as they move up the ranks. Entire coastal villages and towns offer up their men, women and synthetics to the sea, who in turn bring back enough capital to completely transform the area with beautiful buildings and public spaces; the nicer a coastal settlement appears, the more chances it is dedicated to some mariner-related industry. It is not uncommon for even the lowliest of sailors to eventually own a vacation home in the countryside in addition to their primary residence, and many high-ranking captains and rig managers combine their wages to purchase their own merchant ship, giving birth to an ever increasing number of shipping companies.<br />
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The mariner lifestyle has subsequently created a specific subculture they and their families all in some way or another share, involving both traditional Konyanger values and traditions of the sea. Fidelity and supportiveness are particularly important for the mariner's relatives to exhibit, and it is in some way socially mandated. Seafarers regularly receive gifts, provisions and mail from home or the locals in the more distant ports they visit, and households may throw large parties to celebrate the homecoming of a relative after a particularly lenghty journey. Religious talismans and charms are sometimes carried for good luck, though most are generally not superstitious. Cleanliness is a point of pride for mariners, and since freshwater is not an issue, a clean shaven appearance is extremely common on ships and sea stations.<br />
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==Media==<br />
Public media in Konyang is a powerful industry, and as broad as it may seem, it is very tightly knit. Aside from galactic-wide reruns and broadcasts of other nation’s shows, little seems to stand out - except the audio broadcast and illustrated artistic avenues. These two are well-refined artistic giants compared to other forms of entertainment on the planet.<br />
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A huge portion of the planet’s political views and very “personality” are channeled through its larger studios, where many are found enthused to spread its culture galaxy-wide.<br />
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===Audio Broadcast===<br />
Radio, or more broadly the global net of wireless communication, is a huge industry in Konyang. Many IPCs have found harmless additions to their daily lives to be the standard headset and wearable radio kit, permitting any number of fast EAL communication planet-wide streamed directly into their receptors. While not particularly lucrative, the major broadcast stations have made quick work to monopolize their grip over this method of communication. Analog radio has also held a prominent position in people's routine, dating back to early colonial times. Most households maintain an analog radio set able to tune in to Konyang's many different stations that broadcast day and night on a planetary scale. Mariners especially make frequent use of the radio, with talk shows, news, and shipping forecasts keeping them company and up to date along their voyages in the open seas.<br />
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'''Matsumoto’s Talk and Walk'''<br />
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Meant for the on-the-go working IPC, this Encoded Audio Language bluespace broadcast is run by a particularly energetic “Matsumoto.” Though the true nature or even appearance of Matsumoto is unknown, they have constructed a massive following built from IPCs who obsessively strive to uphold their strict, rigid lifestyle. Talk and Walk states clear affiliation with multiple government and corporate organizations, particularly those with Hephaestus Industries. Matsumoto will often promote charitable foundations or corporate products found on Konyang, especially to those tuning in to their tourist-centric broadcast. When speaking in Sol Common, they take on a fast-paced and high-pitched masculine tone. They are frequently put on loudspeakers in popular tourist destinations, with recordings accompanying stylized eyeballs which track passerbys.<br />
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'''Great Blue Dot'''<br />
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Hidden somewhere in the depths of Konyang’s shallow seas is a moving, unseen broadcast station which has gone undetected since its first broadcast in 2430. It is known as the Great Blue Dot, attributed to what researchers believe to be its tremendous size and the color of its marker on sea-charts. While itself illegally broadcasts to every openly-receiving piece of hardware on the southern hemisphere of the planet, little can be gleaned of the actual broadcasts themselves. From incoherent gibberish of “swarms of wasps,” to “hives in the skies,” the outgoing material is poorly formed at best. Receiving these broadcasts is not illegal, contrarily, and the sheer number of watchful eyes bouncing back to the broadcast keeps its location perpetually hidden from local authorities. Search efforts for the source of the Great Blue Dot stopped in May of 2462, due to “excessive cost for little reward,” police officials say.<br />
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====Visual Animation====<br />
[[File:Konyang anime.png|thumb|Seasons 1-14 of BELIEVE!~, one of the flagship animations of Konyang entertainment industry. ]]<br />
Animated media is commonplace on Konyang, and chief among the many outlets that enhance its unique culture. Whereas hundreds, perhaps thousands of animated studios take up projects annually, very few make critical success. By far the most famous and successful studio, Konymation, remains a staple in everyday life, employing thousands throughout the planet in drawing, voicing and animating high budget movies and series of all kinds and genres. The industry, despite computer-aided assistance, heavily leans on IPC labor and organic oversight for its newly-animated creations. This makes it very costly, and few endeavors pay off. Some examples of those that succeeded are below.<br />
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'''Stormman'''<br />
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A very popular series created by Konymation, Stormman has been described as a staple animation by both human and IPC audiences. Aimed primarily at young adults, the action packed franchise features the masked protagonist, Stormman, harnessing the power of Konyang’s stormy and thunderous weather with his high-tech suit, battling crime and apocalyptic alien invaders alike, all while trying to lead a normal life. Eight seasons have been released so far, whereas merchandise of all sorts are widely prominent as well as lucrative. <br />
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'''Believe!~ (In the Time)'''<br />
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A hit animated series renowned for its choppy, quick action sequences led by a stoic heroine by the name of '''Marie,''' a time traveling Venusian shell IPC from the 2460’s. Targeted primarily at IPC audiences, it takes place in the pre-war “wild west” Frontier at around the early warp era. Being released in 2435, it has claimed fame as a “hit 30’s classic,” still being aired on prime broadcast stations globally in subtitled Sol Common. To organic viewers, much of the dialogue, tones or consistency is said to be lost in a muddle of incomprehensibly fast shoot-out scenes and plot twists that happen for split-seconds.<br />
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====Comics====<br />
Spearheaded by Mujigae Publishing, the planet's comic sector has seen great successes that brought paper back into the mainstream. Comic books have a huge share of the market on Konyang, and is perhaps the largest industry of its kind to exist in any civilized world in the Orion Spur. Comic genres vary from children-oriented adventures, to gritty, graphic murder mysteries for adults, all of which may incorporate elements of fantasy and superheroes. Movie and animation adaptations of Mujigae's comics are also a common practice used to boost numbers, making readers able to see their favourite stories and characters on the big screen.<br />
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'''Inspector 404/Kyung-Sun'''<br />
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[[File:Konyang comic.png|thumb|The front cover for the latest edition of I404, "Under the Shadows," featuring Kyung-Sun with superintendent Hayashi in the background.]]<br />
Since its debut in the issue ''“Phantoms of Suwon,”'' the series simply referred to as I404 is the most popular comic in the Orion Spur, and Konyang’s most profitable media franchise. The series centers around the titular '''Inspector 404,''' a shell IPC who goes by the alias of Kyung-Sun, in a bleak and highly dystopian Konyanger cityscape. While the series itself starts upon a Suwon highrise, the character would go on to travel the world in its 67 current issues. Issue #67, known as “Under the Shadows,” revolves around the Kyung-Sun going up against the same police establishment he had been serving, pitting himself against corrupt police superintendent Hayashi.<br />
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'''The Corrupted'''<br />
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Written by former National Police detective Yu-Mi Han and originally published in 2464, The Corrupted is a successful yet controversial detective thriller set in Suwon which is regarded as a more grounded, realistic story than the competing Inspector 404. In first days of Konyang’s independence Detective Sergeant Dae-Jung Song and his assistant Detective Synthetic Duri-IU#21 (later Detective Duri Ryu) uncover a conspiracy by the Trinary Perfection to overthrow its government, turning the planet into a theocracy under a Trinary leader known as “The Patriarch.” Over the course of the series Song and Ryu discover the Trinary Perfection intends to infect synthetic citizens with a virus distributed through overloaders known as “go-sticks,” and the series culminates in a battle between the National Police — aided by 5-Cheung and the Sea Bandits — and Trinary Perfection in the streets of Suwon when their conspiracy is uncovered. Criticized by the Trinary Perfection as, “baseless propaganda,” — a comment put on the back of the series’ first omnibus — The Corrupted has become increasingly popular during Konyang’s ongoing viral outbreak. Han — herself an IPC residing in Suwon — has used its fame to bring attention to the ongoing crisis and encourage cooperation with law enforcement.<br />
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==Fashion==<br />
Being as moist as it is, one would expect the average Konyanger outfits to consist of drysuits and reflective outerwear, with raincoats and the like. This is the case in the majority of urban settings, whereas people in the villages take quite their own unique spin on their fashion choices.<br />
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Insulation from water is difficult to come by without some form of thermal insulation coming with it. This is clearly suboptimal, seeing as beating the heat is just as important as staying dry here. In their ingenuity, rural Konyangers have utilized a “miracle weave” of natural fibers acquired from the feathers of much avian wildlife planetside. Replicating the byproducts of these feathers has proven impossible, leaving only hunting to produce the necessities for the weave. Traditional villages take immense pride in their unique attire, many calling it the most important difference between them and the cities. Combining vibrant colours and utility, Konyanger fields are regularly dotted with farmers sporting colourful ponchos, robes and traditional Gat headwear. Most rural Konyanger “fashion” draws from this weave in some form - resulting in cool, waterproof, and sharp-looking outerwear resembling a poncho in most cases. More complex items such as jackets and legwear are quite expensive and marketed as luxury items for the elite, with the weave still in quite high demand.<br />
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Urban fashion on the other hand is rather detached from the realities of that of the villages. The natural, feather based fabrics are rarely found amongst the denizens of the large cities, while those who do own them are quickly singled out as either people from the countryside, or individuals of a higher class. Rainy weather still being the primary issue, city dwellers have adopted a different stance, preferring clothes of industrial origin.<br />
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In combination with normal everyday clothing items, these Konyangers have adopted a heavy use of water resistant plastics. Stemming from the first years of settlement on the planet, plastic and translucent raincoats were slowly shaped into all sorts of jackets, coats and pants, creating a more comfortable and utilitarian approach to keeping clothes dry. Slowly developing into a fashion sense, and with research on more flexible materials, plastic-based attire has culminated into being the norm. LED lights, translucency and water resistance are the staples of this trend, the youth and clothes designers taking it a step further, with holographic microprojectors being woven and fluorescent substances infused into the material, creating quite the cutting edge in fashion.<br />
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==Overview==<br />
Originally established in 2305 as a Solarian Alliance Outer Ring planet, Konyang is presently one of the more distant outposts under the Coalition of Colonies after its independence in '''2462'''. Konyang’s capital city Suwon, the largest settlement on the planet, is built upon a natural formation that defines most of Konyang's geography: islands with large interior mountains that feature lush, but soaking wet, coastal jungle regions. Konyang was initially a relatively average Outer Ring settlement intended to export water, before the discovery of mysterious, deactivated drones in 2407 led to a robotics boom occuring on the planet that lasted well into the 2450s. The Konyang of today is a planet renowned for its robotics industry, though some of its initial luster has faded in the years following its boom. Water, however, remains a key industry - the planet has a remarkably low salination level, meaning that essentially all of its water is drinkable. Konyang Solarian Common, or Konyang Common, is the most used language on the planet inside and outside of major population centers. Due to its proximity to the Coalition of Colonies planets, Coalition member planets often import water from Konyang. In major cities and universities, Tradeband can be found being spoken, though it remains rare. Speakers of the language are generally from off-planet, moving to Konyang during its robotics boom. Konyang almost completely lacks valuable minerals due to intensive mining efforts carried out by drones—whose source remains unknown—hundreds of years before it was colonized.<br />
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'''Because of the ethnic make-up of Konyang's original settlers and assimilation of immigrants into the native population during the first AI boom, human characters born on Konyang will have names and appearances consistent with the people of China, the Korean Peninsula, and Japanese Islands. Only native Konyangers or Konyang-made IPCs may select the Konyanger accent. This is enforceable by server moderators and admins.'''<br />
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[[File:Konyang flag.png| The Konyanger flag was adopted in 2462, having unofficially been used by pro-autonomy circles long before the declaration of independence. The traditional taitju represents peace and harmony as the highest values of the new state, with the color blue representing the waterways the planet is known for and yellow, their aim of prosperity. The white background represents Konyang's purity.<br />
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==History==<br />
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===Conception and Planning | 2200s - 2299===<br />
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When the United Nations proposed and eventually enforced the creation of the Alliance of Sovereign Solarian Nations, China, Korea and Japan were once more forced to band together to compete with the world for influence inside the newly found institution. Rivals such as the European Union, the Soviet Union, the Commonwealth and the United States were first in line to claim hegemonic roles, their space programs forming the core of Solarian colonization of the Inner, Middle and Outer rings over the centuries, populating them with their own peoples and sparking an unofficial race for prestige land grabs, one which the Department of Colonization was more than happy to let unfold, resulting in the extremely fast expansion of Humanity into the Orion Spur. While regional powers such as India and the Mediterranean countries began creating their own colonies on Gadpathur and Assunzione, the East Asian trio were relegated to secondary roles of supplying technology, labor and capital without any actual representation in the stars, a situation problematic for some and resented by many in the “sovereign” governments.<br />
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It was thus decided to present a plan to Solarian functionaries for a colony spearheaded by China and supported heavily by Korea and Japan, aimed at restoring the pride of the three “cousin-nations” and their position in the Alliance. Intense negotiations and technical planning amounted to years of disagreements over the name, location and allocation of responsibilities between the partners, as well as the presence of China’s Einstein Engines megacorporation, which offered to finance a great portion of the initial effort. Soon however, the advent of the Second Great Depression and the following Interstellar War in the mid-late 2200’s saw a bankrupt Alliance put a halt to any colonization projects, resulting in the plans being shelved. The war took a great toll on the core Solarian worlds, including Earth and its nations which were called to provide manpower, funds and materiel for the Solarian Navy. Federal China’s economy tanked completely under the pressure, relying on IMF bailouts and stays of payment on the salaries of its public sector, with pensionaries and students being most severely hit, resulting in massive social upheaval which would have long lasting consequences for the country’s financial hegemony in the post-war region.<br />
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As peace and relative stability returned, the Alliance found a newly independent, sizable and embittered Coalition of Colonies rival its claims in the Galactic East, calling for the presence of military garrisons and naval stations to protect the border. It was at this time that colonization projects were beginning to reemerge, with the Pacific Pact racing once more to submit a viable plan for a colony that would represent East Asia. A fatigued China could no longer bear the incredible costs it aspired to as the leader of the colonial venture before the war, giving significant leeway to the other two partners and largely retreating behind its megacorporation, Einstein Engines, which was still willing to back the endeavor. An aggressive Korean delegation largely dictated terms, giving birth to the “Konyang Project”, named after the Konyang University in which the colonial undertaking was revealed and presented to the public in 2299.<br />
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===Early Colonial Period | 2304 - 2400s===<br />
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[[File:solyang_flag.png|thumb|right|The flag of Konyang under Alliance administration.]]<br />
The plan envisioned five convoys for the establishment of four primary settlements on a strategically placed planet selected by the Solarian Navy for the support of local naval operations against any threats from the Frontier Alliance. The targeted planet was revealed to be a lush world first discovered in 2278 by a long-range scouting probe, dominated by water and possessing a breathable atmosphere, placing it in a prime position to sustain Human civilization. The quickly named “Haneunim” solar system possessed a few more bodies of secondary importance, and the first convoy was scheduled to launch on the 10th of March 2304, from the Wenchang spaceport in South China, to meet the long-distance freighters in orbit of Luna that would carry the first 5,000 colonists to Konyang. The ethnic mix-up of the colonists were equally distributed amongst the three nationalities, with all being volunteers and 646 of them under the employ of Einstein Engines.<br />
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It took the warp-propelled convoy one year to reach its destination, traversing light years of Solarian vastness before meeting the Navy squadron which would escort them to the planet, with touchdown being made on September 8th, 2305. Konyang was covered in jungles and great mountain ranges, requiring great labor from the men and women of the expedition to create the first settlement, under the direction of officers from the Department of Colonization. Two months later, Unity Station would receive the first signal passed along by the Navy, originating from beacon Number 22890/223, Designation ‘SUWON’. The foundations had been laid. In the following decades, all five convoys would come to form the basis of the “Konyang Territory”, a colony directly controlled by the Alliance and the Solarian Navy as the base of the 58th Fleet. Boosted by its status as a naval base, the abundance of freshwater and with the backing of Einstein, all three cities were realized; Suwon and Boryeong, New Hong Kong, and Aoyama, each at the start holding ethnic majorities of Koreans, Chinese and Japanese respectively.<br />
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===The Robotics Boom | 2407 - 2430s===<br />
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Despite the acceptable climate and near unlimited freshwater, the colonial government soon realized an alarming lack of mineral resources, forcing a complete reliance on external trade and supplies from the Navy for any and all industrial goods and even basic construction materials, a reality which had to be corrected as fast as possible. A planet-wide scanning expedition was organized, while “patriotic aid” was fervently being fundraised in China, Japan and Korea for nearly a whole century to cope with the colonists' increasing demands. This led to a landmark moment in the history of Konyang, when on the 21st of April 2404, mining teams dug into a collapsed tunnel outside the vicinity of Aoyama, discovering a defunct mining drone, crushed by tonnes of rock and soil. The chassis appeared broken and old, though its very presence implied the exploitation of the planet by a different civilization.<br />
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The device was hurried back in secrecy to a panel of dumbfounded colonial officials, who deemed that their corporate partners would be more suited in tracking down its origin. As such, after a quick formality bid behind closed doors, the Alliance sold off its odd piece of government property to Einstein Engines whose scientists saw it as a curious case worth pursuing. Month after month, the Terraneus Diagnostics laboratory in Aoyama kept receiving bits and pieces from similar drones recovered from abandoned, centuries-old mineshafts, culminating in the 2406 discovery of a sealed vault containing a great number of intact mining drones. The severity of this discovery was immediately apparent to the scientists. Words were had with the governor of Konyang by the local Einstein Engines representative, and it was decided to keep the drones a very closely-guarded secret - with only select Terraneus and government officials even being aware of their existence at all, let alone what was being done with them.<br />
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The Terraneus research team worked feverishly, though in secret, for months upon months. Staff were quietly shipped in from offworld in order to not alert outside observers, and the team continued to work upwards of eighty hour weeks in order to crack the drones. In mid-2407, they achieved one of the most remarkable breakthroughs in recent scientific memory by cracking the AI algorithms of the drones. Information of this moved rapidly from the local Einstein Engines office up the corporate chain and moved equally rapidly up the government's chain from provincial office to Sol itself. The information spread like wildfire, and humanity now had the secret of AI despite not truly knowing from where or who these machines came from. This was little more than a footnote to the Nralakk Federation - to them, these AI were crude and hardly approached the machines that had driven their civilization to ruin.<br />
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The robotics boom of Konyang caused a variety of benefits and harms to the previously marginal outer ring planet. The economy ballooned massively, as did its standard of living and industries. Konyang moved from a rural backwater that exported food and water to a high-tech planet that still exported basic goods, but primarily focused upon robotics. Megacorporations flocked to the planet: Einstein Engines, already present through Terraneus, rapidly secured dominance over the planet; Hephaestus Industries struggled with Einstein dominated competition before selling its factories over to local government control in 2427; and Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals, despite its skrell benefactors, purchased rights to examine the planet's biosphere from Einstein. The fact that their prosthetic limbs were originally designed on this planet has been stated to be a "happy coincidence" by its board. Due to the mass arrival of corporations, jobs were readily available - the planet was booming.<br />
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A massive migration wave of Einstein employees and their families to Aoyama made the city wrangle the spot of first in importance from the nominal capital of Suwon, to the point where the expatriate scientific community and their dependents outnumbered the local Japanese original colonists. The city quickly became known to Humanity as “Point Verdant”, the name assigned to the Terraneus Diagnostics laboratory in Aoyama, while the parent countries on Earth invested billions to capitalize on the success of their colonial project, to lift the planet into a modern world and reap the public relations benefits of their colony achieving a breakthrough in artificial intelligence.<br />
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The rapid expansion of Konyang's industries and cities had overtaxed the limited bureaucracy on the planet to the breaking point, and architects were in short supply. Urban planning on Konyang is estimated to be some of the worst in Alliance space outside of New Hai Phong as a result, with cities such as Point Verdant often having haphazard roads running through them and districts smashed together with no apparent rhyme or reason - a legacy of corporate jockeying for areas of interest, and the municipal corruption that came with it. There are countryside facilities originally utilized for drone research and retrieval that have, in recent years, fallen into disuse and disarray. Such facilities often dot the mountains and foothills of Konyang, slowly being overtaken by nature - sometimes with unfortunate results when these facilities have been improperly stripped of dangerous materials. The environment also suffered in areas where drones were found - jungles were cut or burnt away by corporations in order to get at the precious drones below, prefab buildings were orbitally dropped and erected, and landing zones were cut into the landscape itself.<br />
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The stormy tidal waves so infamous for tormenting the early colonists were tamed through the building of sea walls, a comprehensive road network linked the remote villages with the urban centers, and the city of Ganzaodeng was raised from the rocky desert. The Konyanger conglomerate PACHROM would mark the rise of the first native Chaebols, building shipyards, dams, hydroelectric plants and the first space fleet capable of ferrying enormous capacities of water across interstellar systems.<br />
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===The Positronic Integration | 2410s===<br />
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Soon enough, IPCs entered production on the planet, making Konyang one of the first places to embrace the positronic revolution. The limited resources saw higher prices, lessening the availability of domestically produced frames. Furthermore, the still rudimentary waterproofing technologies meant that IPCs could not work for long hours without shelter, ensuring that human jobs would remain safe from automation. When in the rest of Sol IPCs were produced en-masse for labor, Konyanger IPCs were more integrated in white-collar employment and indoors service-related work. Meanwhile, a growing media culture based on animation combined with the Konyanger recycle-friendly attitude, giving newer generations a fresh look on positronic intelligence, one that valued them as people rather than a disposable resource. The lack of widespread automation never brought the anti-synthetic sentiment so common in the rest of Sol, and IPCs in time became a unique cultural phenomenon in the colony’s urban centers.<br />
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Solarian laws governing the relations between IPCs and mankind were nominally enforced on Konyang, barring synthetics from gaining their own freedom, a fact which remained a thorn between the more liberal, younger Konyangers and the older generations. Einstein Engines allied with the Solarian governorship to press for the continuing status of Konyang as a colony, preventing elections and thus any liberal political influence from threatening the company’s grip on its synthetic workforce. This however, did not prevent Konyanger society to further integrate IPCs, even if the concept of universal citizenship for all synthetics was still far from publicly accepted. Aoyama was most receptive to the positronics, as a center of research and culture, with IPCs welcomed in people’s houses, treated like family and celebrated in festivals and even religious ceremonies. Suwon sentiment remained ambivalent, though many Solarian officials and naval officers expressed most severe concerns, in many cases pressing for crackdowns and questioning the morals of Konyanger citizens. The denizens of New Hong Kong and Ganzaodeng on the other hand, were most unhappy, with the powerful Chinese factory and shipyard labor unions remaining vocally opposed to IPC rights in the workplace, owing to their ties with the wider Solarian unions.<br />
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The profound effects of the emergence of this positronic culture were soon felt across the planet, change being heralded through a wave of demonstrations in mid to late 2412. High school and university students in Aoyama took to the streets to call for synthetic rights, in one of the few instances of pro-IPC disturbances on Solarian soil. In particular, the students called for the immediate emancipation of owned synthetics, marching from the main First Avenue down to the Governor's House and being joined by crowds of people and IPCs alike. The Aoyama Constabulary alongside Terraneus security forces were ordered to put a swift end to the march, resulting in the first major incident since the founding of the colony. Over 400 student injuries were recorded, the crowds responding with rocks and branches to the authorities’ tear gas and water cannons. 247 arrests were made that day, sparking additional outrage in the student movement as the ringleaders were tried as adults and given lengthy prison sentences. Smaller incidents were also noted in Suwon and Boryeong, marking 2412 as a year of upheaval and social change, laying the foundations for full IPC citizenship.<br />
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===Late Colonial Period | 2410s - 2440s===<br />
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As Konyang left behind the troubled ’10s and social peace returned through decrees permitting local city authorities to afford certain permissions for IPCs. This followed the final robotics' boom peak in the 2430s, seeing the planet’s GDP growth reach new levels. The colony’s industrial potential skyrocketed, with hundreds of hydroelectric dams, sea walls and shipyards creating thousands of new jobs in New Hong Kong, the new industrial core of Konyang. Labour relations shifted dramatically, as the new Hephaestus-pioneered industrial chassis enabled IPCs to work in the most difficult of conditions, sidelining and driving off the all powerful Gwongfu labor unions, with human employees forced into the urban centers and Ganzaodeng, contributing to a skyrocketing of the local IPC population in the prefecture.<br />
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Suwon saw a significant rise in business activity with the outside world, emboldening private ventures to the neighboring Frontier Alliance, bringing in massive profits from moss and entertainment exports. The animation industry reached new heights, with hundreds of new studios producing pioneering and high quality work, including classics like “One Day in My Life” and “Tomonomimi”, two of the most highly acclaimed works of media in recent Solarian memory. The entertainment sector brought new life to the Konyanger tourism industry as well, with more and more people rediscovering the distant hidden gem tucked deep in the fringes of the Alliance. The Suwon Stock Exchange was listed for the first time in the Chicago Financial Review, Sol’s most coveted investment periodical, as “Upcoming”, leading to billions of credits flowing in the country from abroad.<br />
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New chaebol conglomerates emerged, replacing even Einstein products with widely successful “Local, Cheaper and Better” campaigns. While Gwok Foods was making headlines in 2439 as the most successful Konyanger “IPC-inspired” exporter by yearly gross tonnage, the Ayame Motor Corporation created the first “completely Konyanger” 2-seat automobile designed for the cramped roads of Suwon and Point Verdant, becoming an instant hit. The Boryeong based Mujigae Publishing brought comics back into the youth’s hands, and Konymation had expanded to control cinemas, movie production studios, theme parks and restaurant chains in its ever expanding media empire.<br />
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===Independence and Present Day | 2462 - Present===<br />
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The Mars Violet Dawn catastrophe of 2462 signaled an era of widespread uncertainty and energy insecurity for the entirety of the Sol Alliance, with the Spur-wide phoron crisis exacerbating the situation for the Alliance’s Middle and especially Outer Ring colonies. A Konyanger recession in the late 2450s had already stretched the colonial government thin, with riots over the cost of living and unemployment in New Hong Kong and Suwon making national news for years on end. As the shaken corporations entered discussions on how they would survive the ever increasing phoron costs, it was made clear to everyone that the Alliance could not, and would not fund the refitting of the corporate fleets with the new Suzuki-Zhang Hammer Drive engine, threatening the complete cutoff of Konyang from outer space should the local Bluespace gate fail. Only a few Einstein vessels and the 58th Fleet stationed on the planet remained as the only reliable link between Konyang and the Spur.<br />
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The shortage soon hit the domestic market, leading to dangerous price increases for even the most essential of supplies. The average Konyanger saw their purchasing power plummet, as salaries remained stagnant in the face of a decreasing supply. The colonial Governor Hyun Kyung-Ho, turned to the only emergency option left, Earth. It was not the first time that Patriotic Aid was raised in China, Korea and Japan, though this time it proved most underwhelming. As the call for help fell on ears of men that could not even help their own economies, the trophy colony had to be abandoned to its own devices, with many in the East Asian public accusing Konyangers of greed and forgetting them in their apogee of financial success. With this last link to the past cut off, the question and possibility of independence soon started circling.<br />
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There was no time for serious debate however, with the Alliance being plunged into rebellion and collapse. On November 12, the 58th Fleet hastily departed Konyang, declaring a state of emergency in the system and abandoning the colonial government to its fate. Only elements of the Solarian Army and the Constabularies remained to maintain order, themselves being composed almost entirely of local Konyanger enlisted. The situation immediately turned into unrest, as public sentiment against the ineptitude of the Alliance boiled over into the streets. Massive student protests saw the storming of public buildings and central plazas in every major town and city, demanding a sharp reduction to the cost of living, IPC emancipation and a barring of the 58th Fleet from returning. Government reaction was mild, limited to the prevention of damages and protection of private property. Hyun Kyung-Ho was otherwise sympathetic to the students’ cause, sparking outrage within groups of Alliance-minded Army officers and Einstein corporate elites, who sought to prevent any secession of Konyang.<br />
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Thus, on November 15 2462, elements of the Army garrison under Lieutenant General Jiang Hongbing mobilized against the wishes of the Governor, taking up key positions in Suwon and Point Verdant. The mutinous 8th Sappers infiltrated the historic SUWON beacon telecommunications complex, preparing the country for a silent coup and preventing any long range communications with Sol. Jiang Hongbing, inspired by actions of mutinous admirals, took it upon himself to restore Konyang to the Alliance by marching the Army into the streets. While some of the formations under his command were willing to participate, the vast majority refused to bear arms against the Konyanger Governor or the student movements. In the following day, an internal power struggle saw many officers confined to their quarters, with Army hardliners being arrested, chased off or even assaulted in their own barracks as a loyalist armored brigade blocked access to the Governor’s House, preventing Hongbing’s men from touching Hyun Kyung-Ho.<br />
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With the coup’s inglorious end visible, the Governor’s staff were racing into negotiations with diplomatic officers from Coalition of Colonies still in the country for an express accession into the Coalition, following Konyang’s independence. Jiang Hongbing’s associates surrendered, himself fleeing into the thick jungles of Boryeong Prefecture, declaring a patriotic struggle in the Alliance’s name before soon being betrayed and confined at the 58th base’s Brig. On November 24 2462, telecommunications were restored, and Konyanger independence was broadcast to the world. The country’s preliminary accession into the Coalition was soon after announced, turning a new leaf in Konyang’s history. While the news was received with muted reaction from a confused Alliance government with more pressing matters to handle, the secession of Konyang was a huge blow to the three parent countries. After Governor Hyun Kyung-Ho assembled the nation’s intellectuals, economic and political figures, it was decided that he would remain in place as independent Konyang’s first Governor to organize free elections and set up the foundations for a democratic state.<br />
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Now, as a free Konyang comes out to the world stage, strong government initiative has seen its large synthetic factories nationalized, rapidly introducing legislation to establish the relationship with Einstein Engines. While they still are the dominating megacorporation on the planet, Einstein has lost most of its heavy industry, though still retaining the important research facilities around the vaults, as well as a good portion of software and positronic brain creation.<br />
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==Location and Environment==<br />
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===The Haneunim System===<br />
The Haneunim System, centered around the yellow star it is named for, Haneunim, contains four major celestial bodies, including the planet of Konyang. The whole system bears evidence of ancient mining operations, missing an asteroid belt to separate the inner and outer system with what few rocks remain being mostly picked clean of minerals. The innermost planet is known as Huozhu and remains practically inaccessible due to the scorching heat of Haneunim. Following it is Hwanung , an insignificant dwarf planet believed to have maintained a thin arid atmosphere before most of its mass was artificially stripped away. The third planet in the System is Konyang, accompanied by its lifeless moon of Qixi. Shiranui, a blue gas giant with a ring, is the outermost planet from Haneunim. An asteroid belt, far to the outskirts and composed mostly of ice, forms a ring around the entire system, although this remains largely unexploited by both the Konyanger government and local corporations. It is instead the stomping ground of both refugees fleeing the Sol Wildlands, and the pirates that seek to prey on them.<br />
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===Geography===<br />
[[File:Konyang_map_sat.png|A geographic map of Konyang, showcasing the planet's different biomes. |thumb|800px]]<br />
Primarily a tropical world smaller than Earth, Konyang boasts a mean radius of 5,111 kilometers. Freshwater oceans cover upwards of 88% of the planet’s surface. These oceans also grant Konyang its signature green color when viewed from orbit, in no small part thanks to the abundant presence of moss in the planet’s waterways. The planet’s continents are classified by its larger landmasses and island chains, although given the tides, the planet remains studded with small island chains and archipelagos that ebb and flow with the season. Two small ice caps exist on Konyang where the planet experiences a miniscule amount of snowfall and cold climates. The Konyanger terrain is principally mountainous, with large ranges covering vast areas of the planet’s landmasses. The tallest peak belongs to Mount Sansin, the highest mountain standing at a record 13.890 meters above sea level, its base forming an island of its own. Flanking the mountains are usually lush jungles, present in almost every island and continent in varying densities. This means that settlements have to be located in clearings adjacent to the coastline, on terrain with relatively even elevation. The largest and most dense jungle is located in Bukupo, an island in the heart of the Boryeong Prefecture. The largest landmass on the planet is Cheomseongtang, home of the Suwon prefecture and the nation’s capital. Other notable landmasses are the Oshima islands, hosting the largest mountain ranges, as well as the Yu islands, home of the only biome that could be described as a desert. New Hokkaido is the largest northernmost territory, renowned for its biodiversity and frosty tundra due to its proximity to the planet’s pole, as well as a unique lack of jungles. It is administered directly by the Government of Konyang, being the site of many scientific expeditions and military exercises, only boasting a population of a few hundred people.<br />
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===Environment===<br />
[[File:Konyang.png|An image of Konyang, displaying mossy oceans and algae-covered water as the face of the planet. |thumb]]<br />
Konyang features a highly atypical environment for a habitable planet: it is entirely freshwater. The surface of the planet is primarily oceans, with estimates placing upwards of 88% of the planet as covered in water. What is not under the sea are the islands of Konyang, where the vast majority of its population lives. These islands follow a general pattern: a small coastal area and a large mountain range ringing the island. The freshwater oceans of Konyang feature a remarkable diverse biosphere, and Konyang underwater flora, such as freshwater moss, is often used in the planet's native dishes and exported offworld, as far afield as Sol and Tau Ceti. Konyang is defined by two seasons: wet, lasting nine months, and dry, lasting three months.<br />
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The coastal regions of Konyang represent the smallest regions of its islands, but contain upwards of 90% of the planet's population. Often called the "coastal jungles" of Konyang, these areas are extremely wet - flooding is an issue in many areas, though the bulk of populated and urban areas are protected by extensive flood protection infrastructure, primarily lengthy complexes of walls. Coastal areas feature a wealth of plant and animal life, both of which have been put under stress by the rapid expansion of Konyang's cities.<br />
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Although Konyang’s coastal waters are often tinted green from moss, even more so than its oceans, harvesting and cleanup efforts along the coasts of the main and important islands have resulted in some sections of the planet appearing blue. These areas are often exploited for settlements and as tourist destinations for their scenic looks, while dedicated seaweed and algae farms dot the planet, providing an income for local villages and traditional producers. The most famous Konyanger food exporter, Go-Go Gwok!, has the largest involvement in the moss and seaweed industry.<br />
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The inland mountain ranges of Konyang can be up to several kilometers in height in some areas, with smaller foothills featuring some rare settlements leading up to them. These ranges, which lack valuable minerals completely due to Glorsh-era mining, are the reason for Konyang's jungles - they form an effective rain shadow. Some mountains have what is assumed to be collapsed mines in them, deactivated drones scattered throughout.<br />
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A phenomenon unique to the easternmost Yu islands of the Ganzaodeng prefecture, inland deserts are created due to the rain shadow caused by the surrounding mountain ranges. These are the least populated areas of the planet. Extraordinarily dry, little grows or lives in these environments. Rare Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals facilities can be found in this area, taking advantage of the isolation and relatively sterile environment that the inland deserts offer.<br />
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Lastly, the oceans of Konyang are regularly stormy, the large waves being harnessed for their energy in electricity production at numerous such outposts, scattered throughout the unpopulated islets in the farthest and most secluded areas.<br />
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===Flora and Fauna===<br />
Wildlife on Konyang is a peculiar mix of its original environment and the thousands of invasive species introduced by Human colonization. Species introduced in the initial colonization of the planet include huge herbivores and peaceful, if ecologically destructive, wildlife. Additionally, the large oceans are host to an uncountable number of species of fish, crustaceans and aquatic molluscs, with many being unique to their region of origin. Flora on Konyang is among its most famed aspects, spearheaded by the mossy shores and overgrowth which covers the vast majority of its visible terrain. All plant life which survives on Konyang must survive the extremely damp environment, and as such either thrives in the water, or is capable of moving away from it. Konyang's waters are famously covered in green moss and seaweed, giving it its signature color when viewed from orbit.<br />
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Some examples of unique flora and fauna are:<br />
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'''Shelfers'''<br />
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In the marsh and lowlands of Konyang's algae coasts resides an invasive species of large omnivores known as '''Shelfers.''' These are gluttonous moss-feasting beasts, with a distinct six-legged and bloated appearance. They are excellent swimmers, owed to webbed joints and a wedge shaped, slick head. From this, it uses a set of large protruding teeth to scrape moss and undersea growths. This creature is endangered, and displayed as a national animal thanks to its unique appearance. Originally a danger to unprepared colonization, these gained a reputation for its tendency to attack colonists.<br />
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These were first encountered by colonists who had shipped wildlife to and from Arusha, where escaped subjects managed to reproduce- over the years becoming a cultural icon due to their miraculous beneficial place they have in Konyang's ecosystem.<br />
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'''Konyanger Jeweler Cockatoo'''<br />
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Known for its affinity to decorate its nesting grounds with surface-level pearls and gems of all sorts is an opportunistic carnivore, the '''Jeweler Cockatoo.''' This large avian is an offshoot of the Earth parrot, bred originally to “liven the landscape” of Konyang’s dreary inner mountainous lands. Eventually, with the assistance of high-level genetic modification, they grew to giant proportions whilst maintaining the health and lifestyle of a standard - ''if highly dangerous'' - parrot. <br />
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Where small patches of forest and barrens clash, these birds thrive and craft beautiful roosts in the relative safety of open fields. In these fields, diminutive predators avoid the large avian’s glare (or don’t, and are frequently preyed upon.) The Jeweler Cockatoo possesses two sharp talons on one digit of each of its feet, and a short - but unbelievably sharp beak, refined further by its tendency to dig. The wingspan of these birds can grow up to fifteen feet.<br />
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The Jeweler Cockatoo is the national bird of Konyang, with many stylized imagery depicting the bird in some shape or form.<br />
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'''Glittering Konyang Moss'''<br />
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Found in vast plains of coastal territories in excess is the overflowing, yet precious resource of '''Konyang moss.''' One of its primary exports, this barely-tapped commodity retains a huge capacity to feed Konyang’s already sturdy ecosystem, and the billions which reside upon it, and more to export. The evolutionary process which grew this mystical, shimmering moss is a mystery, however its luster and fields of green it generates has a wonderful impact on sustaining Konyang’s moist, overgrown and greenery-rich habitat. <br />
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Konyang moss is pivotal to its moving industries, and even after the robotics boom, it remains a stable source of incoming development for the since-burgeoning planet. The moss’ nutritional properties have been highly studied in recent decades. Its rapid pace of growth is exclusive to Konyang’s ecological circumstances, with everything from subterranean heat, to the algae present in its beautiful green seas factoring in.<br />
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==Economy==<br />
While young, the nation of Konyang boasts a powerful regional economy built upon decades of trade with both the Alliance and various Coalition partners. A developed country, Konyang manages to surpass its near total lack of ore with robust exports of foodstuff and energy, a strong shipping industry and a powerful robotics sector.<br />
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===Raw Materials===<br />
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[[File:Konyang dam.png|thumb|Dams and sea walls are a common sight on Konyang, used to protect cities and population centres from floods and tsunamis, as well as to exploit the violent waves for electricity.]]<br />
Konyang's freshwater oceans were perhaps the largest boon to the starting colonists, and continues to play a substantial role behind the planet's exports. Fishing provides for a large aspect of the domestic economy, with millions of fishing boats and trawlers scouring the shores and oceans for all kinds of fish, crustaceans and other aquatic creatures, of which a complete list doesn't exist. Such is the biodiversity in Konyang's waters, that each region has its own fish markets which serve clients all over the planet and the Spur. Besides fishing, Konyang's biggest aquatic produce in terms of volume belongs to its enormous seaweed and moss harvesting industries. Entire ships are purpose-built for collecting wild greenery which floats on the high seas and the bays of Konyang, bringing in billions in offworld exports and domestic sales. The harvesting of moss is not exclusive to the sea and the aquatic farms either, as many edible varieties are collected inland, both in the planet's jungles and mountain ranges. Konyanger moss is Spur-renowned thanks to powerful marketing campaigns and the spread of the planet's cuisine.<br />
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With tremendously stormy wet seasons lasting most of the year, it is no surprise that Konyanger corporations have attempted and managed to harness the energy of the wind, waves and waters of the planet. Electricity is generated through a network of dams, hydroelectric plants, wave power stations and tidal power stations, all dotted across the vast shores and oceans of Konyang. The electricity produced is then either stored in super capacitors, or is directly wired inland through thick underwater cables, catering to the needs of virtually every power grid on the globe. Much of it is also transported on board space freighters lined with rows of large batteries, ready to make the journey to Alliance and Coalition worlds as part of the lucrative electricity export industry.<br />
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Lastly, Konyang excells in the export of water and timber. The continent-spanning untouched jungles provide an excellent source of wood for foreign markets as well as domestic construction, of which there is very heavy use in lieu of metal structures. The freshwater is also extremely easy to chemically filter, skipping any desalination process before being bottled or shipped as-is on board of one of many of Konyang's water barges; large hollow space vessels with tankers and pools for water storage.<br />
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===Maritime Shipping===<br />
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Surface shipping is another one of the main forces behind Konyang's domestic market economy, and an inseparable part of the nation's maritime culture. The docks and shipyards of New Hong Kong are the beating heart of the sector, which provides employment to more than 20% of the entire planet's population. Entire towns were formed and dedicated to housing the laborers and their families close to the coast, and many islands subsist entirely off of seamen's salaries and work at nearby electricity stations. Surface shipping, while slower, is a lot more economical for planetary moving of goods across the continents and islands of Konyang, being preferred to airlifting or orbital shuttling. Aside from the creation of jobs and the transportation of goods, Konyang's shipping industry produces excellent sailors who can rival those of planets such as Europa, many of whom eventually transition to space.<br />
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===Robotics and Services===<br />
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Ever since the robotics boom, Konyang has become a major player in the export and development of IPCs and everything surrounding them. Each year, the most cutting edge technologies catered to the improvement of the life of synthetics are released by Konyanger software companies, often to critical acclaim. This is because of the the substantial positronic population, free and eager to spend on such innovations that allow them to experience the world in a more human-like fashion. When it comes to the export of IPCs, Einstein Engines remains the prime manufacturer of chassis and positronic brains, which are shipped abroad without being activated. The practice, while putting Konyang on the map as one of the big regional producers of synthetics, is a hotly contested area between deeply entrenched corporate interests and an increasingly politically aware IPC populace. Non-positronic robotics are a separate, but once significant part of the economy, with Konyang having hoeld high places in the spur leaderboards for the making of robots, mechs, pAIs and automated systems. This sector however, took a major hit as the robotics boom slowly deflated, leaving behind abandoned industrial complexes and derelict factories.<br />
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The nation's service sector has to be one of the biggest ones, contributing a sizeable portion of the country's Gross Domestic Product. Many of the companies listed on the Suwon Stock Exchange are everything from financial consultation firms, to insurance agencies, housed in every majpr city's financial district. Skyscrapers and office complexes in downtown Suwon, Point Verdant and New Hong Kong are a daily reminder of the office life millions of Konyangers live, and many parents dream of their child being able to one day find employment in a top law firm or such. While mostly concentrated in the domestic market, many of these companies have expanded their services abroad, building a reputation of Konyanger reliability and impeccable work.<br />
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===Konyanger Corporations===<br />
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In terms of the traditional megacorporations, the undoubted hegemon remains Einstein Engines, entrenched in the planet's life since the beginning of Konyang's colonization. The megacorporation owns a number of subsidiaries on the planet in many different sectors, most notably, Terraneus Diagnostics, which regularly bankrolls and invests in government initiatives in exchange for their continuous presence. It retains the original research facilities and control over the vaults, even if IPC production and exports are now handled by the Konyang Robotics Corporation, a public company in which Einstein controls a 49% stake. The Terraneus facilities on the planet mainly handle shell research and positronic brain production for export to the Coalition, while they occasionally butt heads with Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals in the realm of IPC research. Zeng-Hu has the second-largest megacorporate presence, mainly in biosphere research and sales of pharmaceuticals. Despite this, local conglomerates generally dominate the country’s financial sector, commanding the government’s cooperation and good graces in order to keep a stable economy. Upon achieving independence, Konyang has managed to maintain a strong presence of homegrown corporations in the fields of agriculture, media, energy and consumer goods.<br />
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'''PACHROM'''<br />
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A chemical and engineering corporation, PACHROM builds, maintains and manages eighty percent of all private dams, hydroelectric plants and seawalls on Konyang, as well as engaging in the field of chemicals and plastics production. Headed by Park Moon-soo, the business mogul is vying for influence with the government as indispensable to the nation’s energy output and defence against floods and natural disasters, making the “Pachrom Parks” one of the richest and most powerful business dynasties on the planet. Headquartered in central Suwon, the bulk of PACHROM’s operations are located in diasporic, uninhabited islands in the middle of the world’s oceans, where hundreds of organic and synthetic workmen toil daily to run the water powered electricity plants in extremely dangerous conditions.<br />
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The company’s notorious reputation for neglecting the safety of its employees and the environmental disregard for waste disposal from its plastics factories has been a big stain the Parks have struggled to wash off. While their ties to both the Alliance administration and the Konyang government have proven instrumental in their ability to dodge damning legal action, demonstrations of public outcry are a common feature in and around the street opposite the PACHROM office complex. To counter this, public relations campaigns are a constant focus, with tens of millions being spent in portraying them in a positive light. Charities are a large part of the Park family’s social presence, sponsoring public works and offering scholarships mainly in the Boryeong and New Hong Kong prefectures, where the majority of employees originate.<br />
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Often finding itself without funds from Unity Station, the colonial administration would commission PACHROM in the form of lucrative contracts for the construction of dams and power stations, allowing the utilisation of synthetics and IPC for the dangerous labour required. Due to society’s favourable opinion towards positronic intelligence, the multitude of cases of IPC fatalities would be swept under the rug with government assistance, creating a culture of tolerance towards lacklustre safety features and general disregard. Today, PACHROM’s future remains uncertain as the newly independent state of Konyang wishes tends to distance itself from its shaky past, a fact indicated by the recent awarding of the Kaneyama nuclear plant to the public company GON-ENE.<br />
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'''Gwok Group'''<br />
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Founded in the early 2410s with the name Hyeonsang Foods, the precursor to today’s multinational food conglomerate was the first attempt at commercialising Konyang’s seaweed and moss both for export and internal consumption. Initially finding limited success due to an overly competitive local market and foreign consumers' reluctance to the Konyanger novelty, the company's defining moment arrived during the robotics boom, launching them from mediocrity into the billion credit business stage.<br />
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As Einstein Engines staff poured into Point Verdant, Hyeonsang secured a contract from the megacorporation's local branch for providing meals and miscellaneous catering to workers and research staff. The once alienated Einstein employees would soon come around, praising the brand for its flavourful seasoning and convenience, eventually spreading the word to Einstein facilities and back home. By the late 40s, Hyeonsang was on the track of significant financial success, having secured a large foothold in the foreign dominated central districts of Point Verdant.<br />
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Rebranding into the more consumer friendly “Gwok” name in 2452, the company’s reputation abroad led to the opening of regional branches in the Solarian middle and core worlds, generating an increasingly massive amount of income, used for an aggressive takeover of the local Konyanger market. By buying off competitors, monopolising the moss and seaweed industry and introducing new marketing, Gwok’s domestic success was soon guaranteed as the primary supplier of supermarkets. In 2454 the IPC Gwok-0783, until then a senior executive and the face of the company as the main influencer of the rebrand, assumed direct control as CEO of the conglomerate thus becoming the first IPC in charge of a billion credit corporation in Sol space. The following years would see the consolidation of all affiliated assets and filial companies under an umbrella Gwok Group, topping the charts and establishing a farming, food and restaurant chain empire.<br />
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'''Konymation'''<br />
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Konymation represents the peak of the Konyanger animated media scene, being by far the most successful and most well known studio in the country, with a Spur-wide fame. It arose in the early days of the robotics boom, creating a resurgency of animations for both children and adults. While the industry was almost non-existent and cheap Solarian cartoons were the norm, a group of inspired artists came together to animate and direct the first feature-length production from Konyang, using native voice actors and a brand new artstyle of their own. The result was "One Day in my Life", a slice of life film following the daily routine of an IPC secretary in a human-dominated world, becoming an instant hit with both domestic and foreign audiences. Since then, Konymation rose to become the largest studio of quality animations, creating films and series for all ages and of all genres. Such was the success, that any animated pieces from Konyang have passed into the public consciousness simply as "Konymations", referred to as such in both the planet and abroad. Since their foundation, the studio has developed into a media conglomerate, buying out holoscreen channels, online platforms, news networks and more.<br />
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'''Mujigae Publishing'''<br />
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The biggest publishing house, Mujigae is to the comic book industry what Konymation is to animation. Having created thousands of interesting and touching comic series, Mujigae is credited with bringing paper back into the hands of millions of Konyangers, in an age where digital platforms have become the default for nearly everything in life. Many of Mujigae's works find great demand abroad as well as at home, with the company being known for their efforts to constantly seek out and recruit new artists with fresh ideas. A plethora of published series often find themselves being adapted into the holoscreen in lucrative partnerships with Konymation, as well as the other way around. Additionally, Mujigae's philanthropic work cannot go unmentioned; millions of credits have found their way to various charities on Konyang, primarily those regarding the children, the money drawn from art festivals and comicons that are hosted annually, often with the participation of the Ministry of Culture. <br />
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'''Konyang Robotics Corporation'''<br />
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The Konyang Robotics Corporation, or KRC as is more commonly known, is the country's largest government-controlled company centered around the manufacture, maintenance and welfare of the nation's positronic population. Borrowing heavily from Einstein know-how and infrastructure, it originated from the nationalization of Einstein and Terraneus IPC factories, with the majority of their employees swapping over to a government payroll. Einstein Engines controls 49% of the shares of the company, lending it tremendous behind-the-scenes influence on Konyang's synthetic population.<br />
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The primary function of the KRC is the production, storage and activation of IPC citizens. A very politically and socially sensitive topic, great care is placed by the government through the Ministry of Health and Positronic Affairs to meticulously calculate and order the amount of yearly activations, so as to maintain the Human-IPC ratio and meet the demands of the job market. To that effect, the KRC also acts as a sort of "school" for the newly activated IPC citizens, with special orientation camps where synthetics are taught about Konyanger society before released to the world.<br />
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Furthermore, the KRC acts as the primary health provider for Konyanger IPCs, with clinics and hospitals situated in every town and city, as well as strategically placed in certain villages in the countryside. Thousands of roboticists, engineers and software technicians are employed by the KRC to act as the equivalents of surgeons, physicians, nurses and paramedics for the IPC population, who are afforded universal healthcare through the KRC. Appointment times are dependent on location and the capacity of the clinic or hospital, with many in more remote areas having to wait months for limb replacements and other, more heavy duty needs that cannot be met by their local KRC center.<br />
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'''GON-ENE'''<br />
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GON-ENE is a newly formed, state-controlled energy utilities company, created following the announcement of the Kaneyama Nuclear Power Plant. Perceived as a direct competitor to PACHROM, GON-ENE has been planned to expand into hydroelectric and wave power, giving the government a greater control of the nation's power grid and cutting back reliance on privately-owned sector, though complete autarky is off the table for at least many decades.<br />
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==Government==<br />
''Main Article: [[Konyanger Government and Politics#Government|Konyanger Government]]''<br />
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Konyang is organized as a unitary semi-parliamentary republic headed by a President, the former colonial governor Hyun Kyung-Ho being elected to the position after independence. The Prime Minister is elected by the citizenry every four years, and is the leader of the governing party in the Parliament of Konyang. The current Prime Minister is Myeong Myung-Dae.<br />
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Planetary politics are found on both a national and prefectural level, with every party running in local and national elections. Polarization is fairly limited, the vast majority of Konyangers rejecting the extreme views put forward by radical political movements in the country that tend to be marginalized. IPC politicians do exist and are found in every major party, though most can be seen sitting with the National Party of Konyang.<br />
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===Military===<br />
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[[File:Marine.png|thumb|right|An IPC Konyanger Naval Infantryman in full gear.]]<br />
Konyang’s military, also known as the Konyang Armed Forces, was first formed shortly after the colony’s independence from personnel of the former Solarian garrison. As a result, it carries a lot of the traditions of the Solarian Armed Forces. Bolstered by conscription laws requiring both organic and synthetic citizens one year of mandatory service, the KAF possesses Army, Navy and Aerospace branches. IPCs are actively recruited and accepted into the military, forming both their own and deployed in mixed units. This segregation is justified by the government as based solely on the differentiating capabilities, logistical needs and skills between man and machine.<br />
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That claim does hold true to an extent, with IPCs taking a more active role in special forces formations, dealing with operations requiring levels of precision and focus that artificial intelligence can easily provide. A famous example is the army’s Mechatronic Corps, an elite unit utilising large, leftover battle mechs retrofitted for a pair of pilots. Such a force is unique in the Coalition, and is often used abroad in operations under broader CoC military command. Mixed infantry units of conscripts do exist, fielded in jungle patrol tasks or assigned garrison duty.<br />
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Notably for a 25th century military, the Navy maintains a very large aquatic force which it uses to patrol the vast oceans of the planet. Regularly described as more of a coast guard than a military arm, it is more geared for domestic policing than combat, consisting mostly of ships acting as launching points for many smaller, coast guard type vessels that patrol the vast expanse of the planet’s waterways and launch military aircraft. Nevertheless, it provides important services with its multiple telecommunication, radar and island outposts, providing crucial meteorological information for everyday seafaring and flood prevention on a planet where storms and extreme weather are the norm.<br />
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The Konyang Aerospace Forces perform both atmospheric and orbital operations with their doctrine clearly influenced by former Solarian officers within their ranks. Their fleet consist of obsolete vessels donated by Coalition planets, partially brought up to a modern standard by the planet’s technology and manufacturing sector. In 2465, the KASF’s main tasks include protecting the system from pirates and policing the large influx of refugees from the Human Wildlands, regularly pushing them to other planets within the Coalition as per Konyang’s strict migration laws.<br />
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===National Police===<br />
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[[File:Konyanger Police Ranks.png|thumb|In order to organize the National Police and smooth cooperation between prefectures, a unified rank structure was adopted shortly after its formation.]]<br />
Despite its federal nature, the main law enforcement agency on the planet is the National Police, formed after Konyang’s independence from the merging of a number of local and specialised agencies under the then Solarian authority. One major change since then has been the introduction of synthetic officers in all positions and ranks, while also creating special divisions suited best for them. Police gear remains rather antiquated for the era, the force still using old Solarian equipment and stocks from the colonial garrison, meaning that much of the tactics and thinking remain unchanged. Considered tame by Alliance standards, the National Police places an emphasis on preventative policing, building rapport with local communities, and relying on a sense of civic duty from the populace to perform its duties. Despite this, the National Police has nonetheless received criticism for occasional incidents of corruption and brutality, mostly against synthetic citizens. This is more common in remote departments and conservative prefectures, where the sudden inclusiveness of synthetic officers with equal pay and opportunities is seen as a threat. Such incidents aside, government efforts for the modernisation of the National Police are ongoing.<br />
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The police is subject to the Ministry of Public Safety in Suwon and is organised at the national level, with local departments answering to the assigned hierarchy in their prefecture. Special divisions are deployed to deal with various policing duties, their size ranging from a whole new branch to Special Robotics detachments specialising in detainment of volatile synthetic suspects. The largest of these subdivisions and arguably the most important, the Coast Guard is the maritime arm of the National Police, operating a fleet of shore and sea patrol vessels in their mission to enforce the law at the huge array of islands and in Konyang’s waters. As the planet is surrounded by oceans, the Coast Guard has proven itself essential to the battle against smuggling and piracy while also assuming search and rescue duties during flooding, tsunamis and other catastrophes. The National Police has also gained Coalition-wide acclaim for its Special Robotics Division - a task force known for its expertise in detaining IPC without causing permanent damage.<br />
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==Culture==<br />
''Main article: [[Konyanger_Culture_and_Society|Konyanger Culture]]''<br />
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Konyang’s culture has been shaped by its East Asian Earther heritage, unique status as a colony with little to no resources, and as the birthplace of positronics. Konyanger society is often described as closed-off, with many unspoken social norms that vary from prefecture to prefecture. Key social norms that are shared in Konyang’s culture are Harmony, Reciprocity, and Face. Often derided as “meekness”, Harmony refers to enforcing unity and conformity within society. The specific manifestations vary from prefecture to prefecture, but in general, individuals who disrupt a sense of peace can face social ostracization. For instance, explicit disagreement such as using the word “no” is considered impolite, and a non-answer is often far more acceptable. Harmony also refers to a person’s social role; respect should be shown to people of a higher status, usually along traditional lines such as age, profession, and experience.<br />
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===Media===<br />
''Main article: [[Konyanger_Culture_and_Society#Media|Media]]''<br />
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Public media in Konyang is a powerful industry, and as broad as it may seem, it is very tightly knit. Aside from galactic-wide reruns and broadcasts of other nation’s shows, little seems to stand out - except the audio broadcast and illustrated artistic avenues. These two are well-refined artistic giants compared to other forms of entertainment on the planet.<br />
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A huge portion of the planet’s political views and very “personality” are channeled through its larger studios, where many are found enthused to spread its culture galaxy-wide.<br />
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===Cuisine===<br />
The primary diet of Konyangers consists of moss, seaweed and fish, with farms and pastures on land being rare due to the thick jungle. Konyang's moss is either harvested in the wild, grown in "natural" hydrofarms, or grown synthetically in bioplants. The moss itself is said to change its taste depending on the environment in which it is grown, and natural moss from the coasts around Konyang's islands is highly prized. Exports of moss and seaweed are a very lucrative business, held primarily by the galaxy-famous Go-Go Gwok! brand. Many workers, however, must make do with hydrofarm moss at best, and synthetic substitutes at worst. Konyang's fish - quite diverse, due to its freshwater environments - are also often consumed on the planet, with many being exported as luxury food as far afield as Venus and Tau Ceti. More conventional but water-intensive crops such as rice and other tropical fruits are also grown to a certain extent but are considered a rarity.<br />
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The planet is also home to a thriving beverages industry, with local varieties of algae providing the basis of a light but thick alcoholic drink colloquially known as “Nong jiu” domestically and abroad. The wide selection of produce on the planet however means more traditional drinks are produced, typically drawing from their Earther roots and commonly based on rice. Some of these drinks are exported by local businesses such as Go-Go Gwok! while Zeng-Hu has wrestled to control some of these brands in an attempt to stop them from competing with their own lineups.<br />
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===Synthetic Cuisine===<br />
Synthetic-unique cuisine is an unusual case in the Spur, but not for Konyang. Here, robots utilize gustatorial implants to - if inefficiently - consume, or at least “taste” food regularly. Indeed, there is an entire market for synthfood where robots can enjoy their own form of taste, texture and uniquely perceptive flavor for foods. Mostly, synthfood is described as a thick slime, one with varying additives for color. Texture is mostly a simulated process within gustatorial implants, given they are not always present on tongues alone - meaning that the actual texture of these synthfoods remains the same gooey substance.<br />
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''One can achieve a similar substance to these synthfoods mechanically by grinding certain foods into paste, or utilizing candy machines with your choice of ingredients and output.''<br />
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==Organized Crime==<br />
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=====Benevolent Guild=====<br />
The Benevolent Guild is a criminal organisation operating primarily within the decrepit, dark shadows of New Hong Kong. Originating as a mutual aid society for low income and forced penal colonists shipped into New Hong Kong by the Alliance government, it developed into a ruthless crime syndicate with strong ties to the local lower class community. From the start, the tightly knit communal and familial ties have played an important role in preserving the gang’s power and shielding them from police action. Only in recent years has any meaningful progress been made, the allocation of governmental resources and the increasingly violent and profit-oriented tactics of the Guild having alienated much of the younger generation, chipping away at the once widely popular support.<br />
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Starting with extortion and loan sharking, the Benevolent Guild rapidly expanded into gambling, drugs and violent crime such as kidnapping both in New Hong Kong and in New Kowloon. It is not uncommon for synthetics that find themselves victims of the group’s loan shark tactics to be ‘collected’ as collateral damage and subsequently carted off to whichever corner of the Orion Spur where their new owners await them usually at a far cheaper rate than elsewhere. One of the few institutions on Konyang refusing to admit synthetics owing to a deeply conservative and spiritually esoteric internal ideology, a pragmatist outlook often compels them to deal with and even cooperate with IPC politicians, police and rival gangs. Connections with criminal organisations in the wider Spur have been confirmed to exist, as various crime syndicates in Xanu, New Hai Phong and Luna are known to be in connection with the Benevolent Guild.<br />
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=====5-Cheung=====<br />
Emerging as one of the strongest IPC/organic street gangs of Suwon, the 5-Cheung numbers in the thousands of members in the cities of the Suwon and Point Verdant prefectures. The organisation’s origin as a loose collective of delinquents and fringe elements has since developed into a nationwide crime family with a powerful hierarchy fielding biker gangs and thugs to enforce their tight grip on the underworld. With a black repertoire of gambling, extortion, money laundering and narcotics, the 5-Cheung is considered a main rival to the Benevolent Guild of New Hong Kong, the two frequently coming to blows in a series of wars and uneasy truces over control of turf and general competition.<br />
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An open secret in the country’s political sphere has the 5-Cheung profit lucratively from corruption in the highest levels of government and police. During the Solarian era, prominent politicians employed protection from the 5-Cheung, soliciting their services in voter swaying, intimidation of opposition members and violent disruption of rallies and demonstrators. This has given the gang a justified reputation for being the political soldiers of ruling dynasties and representing the authorities in the underworld and on the street in exchange for immunity from prosecution. Following Konyang’s independence, the reformed National Police retained a virtually unchanged staff while the nation’s same prominent political families, now unshackled from Alliance oversight, enjoy even more freedom. As such, it is safe to say that 5-Cheung’s entrenched position will continue to remain untouched aside from the occasional drug bust and arrest of low level members.<br />
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=====Sea Bandits=====<br />
Although both the previous colonial administration and the nascent Konyanger Armed Forces and Coast Guard have tried to stamp out piracy, the sheer expanse of the planet means that groups of what the authorities call “sea bandits” continue to infest the waters and orbit of Konyang. Ranging from small motor boats launched from fishing villages with nothing more than an antique rifle, to retrofitted probes salvaged from the refugee waves pouring into the system, piracy is one of the most pressing social and security issues faced by the newly formed nation.<br />
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Individual pirate groups usually number no greater than twenty people but the Sea Bandits as a whole operate as a wider criminal network inclusive of individuals and crews from all over the planet. By coordinating their activities and intelligence through encrypted sites, the organisation manages to both evade and stay one step ahead of the authorities. Most of their activities take the form of kidnapping, armed robbery of craft and hijacking unescorted seafarers, while admittedly avoiding the busiest and well guarded sealanes and locations. The most audacious raid by the Sea Bandits to date involved the boarding and ransoming of a cruise ship by the use of an unregistered freighter. Although only circumstantial evidence has been uncovered, Golden Deep Zaibatsu have also been accused of working with Sea Bandit groups by launching probes full of narcotics, to be recovered by the pirates.<br />
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==Synthetics on Konyang==<br />
As the origin of the integrated positronic chassis now found throughout the Orion Spur, Konyang has always had a quite unique relationship with IPCs, the IPC population constituting a staggering 34% of the total population. While IPCs throughout the Sol Alliance are often looked upon as little more than property, tools, or novelties depending upon their frame those found upon Konyang possessed a notably greater degree of autonomy and freedom before the planet’s secession from the rest of the Alliance, achieving full and unconditional freedom afterwards. Legal ownership of synthetics within the borders of the Republic does not exist, the Emancipation Act constituting one of the first acts passed by Parliament. IPCs can work wherever they like, live however they please within the confines of the law, and partake in politics by voting or being elected. As such, foreigners are repeatedly cautioned to not bring any privately held IPCs with them, for they cannot be forced to return unwillingly.<br />
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Ordinary Konyangers, as a result of the planet’s liberal outlook on positronics, possess a more positive view of synthetics than other humans in the Orion Spur - particularly those from the Sol Alliance and its former territories. The majority of people on Konyang view IPCs as amicable colleagues and neighbours, with many friendships between man and machine being established. Closer bonds such as marriage are also legalised and not unheard of, though not without outcries from the more conservative spectrum. Many scholars theorize that this is due to the prevalence of IPCs in daily life on Konyang, seamlessly blending into society, in addition to the pride many citizens have in their planet being the origin of the modern positronic. Konyang’s integration of IPCs stands with some degree of contrast to Biesel’s, with the large synthetic ghetto of District 14 segregating many synthetics from the average citizen of the Republic of Biesel.<br />
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With Konyang’s independence, IPCs share full legal equality with all organic citizens of the planet. This concession was given, both as an acknowledgement and acceptance of the fact that synthetics have become part of everyday life in the colony and are generally accepted by its inhabitants. Unlike the Republic of Biesel, IPCs in Konyang seek to assimilate into human society, with IPCs being given the choice to adopt a second, “human name” before receiving citizenship. A human name can range from an entirely new name, to adding a first or last name of any kind to their existing designation.<br />
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Many positronics can be found within the economy of Konyang with perhaps the most famous (or infamous) one being Gwok-0783 (now Kim Gwok-0783, under post-independence IPC naming conventions), the owner and operator of her very own food conglomerate in the form of Go-Go Gwok! Authentic Konyanger Moss. As Go-Go Gwok! is technically an interstellar corporation, Gwok-0783 herself relied on a series of legal loopholes centered around Konyang’s former IPC laws to maintain control of the company when Konyang was still in the Sol Alliance. Examples such as Gwok, with her control of an inter-planetary corporation, are fairly rare. However, many positronics have made a successful name for themselves as small business owners and corporate workers on Konyang.<br />
[[File:Konyang vault.png|thumb|A mysterious vault upon Konyang's surface, unearthed and built around with monitoring infrastructure.]]<br />
Due to the system’s bluespace gate, many members of [[Synthetic_Factions#The_Golden_Deep|Golden Deep]] have secured permits to operate, as it allows their vessels to more easily make the journey from the frontier to the more lucrative markets of Tau Ceti and the Jewel Worlds. The money and business brought into the system by these synthetic traders has - arguably - been a major contributor to Konyang’s more liberal laws and regulations regarding IPCs. Konyang, before its independence, was one of the few systems under Solarian control in which IPCs could own and operate a business. <br />
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The synthetic population in Konyang is regulated by the government. A set number of positronics are assembled each year under contract at Terraneus Diagnostics facilities in Point Verdant with the prospect of being granted citizenship after a 3 month life orientation period. The determined number is set annually by Parliament, backed up by the yearly census and statistics, with production increasing or decreasing depending on the number of human birth ratios, positronic shutdowns, and other factors. Expenses are met both through government funds and private donations, though debate on the matter is rarely heated as the amount of new brains numbers usually in the hundreds; a tiny fraction of positronics produced and exported in total. IPCs and positronics constructed for the purpose of selling them to a different country, are not covered by such regulations and are not given citizenship.<br />
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There are further regulations in robotics construction in Konyang. Any activated positronic brain can qualify under the Emancipation Act. Exceptions to the law exist for manufacturing and research, with Point Verdant in particular activating positronic brains for the sake of testing shells before shipping them off-world. The law has also sparked development in other fields of mechatronics, with Konyang beginning to lead the way in circuit-based robotics.<br />
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Despite gains for its IPC citizens, other positronic intelligences have not been so lucky. Although some brains have been repurposed as AI coordinators for cities; with no way to transition to humanoid frames, bound intelligences have been granted freedom, but often take contracts with corporations that result in a return to the old status quo, all for the sake of staving off destruction due to a lack of maintenance.<br />
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===Konyanger Augmentation of IPCs===<br />
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Augmentation on Konyang is a fascinating subject, where the presence of so many IPCs has brought success in modifying the Positronic body and mind. Famed explorations into the sectors of IPC modification include "sensory evolution," where synthetics' senses being amplified or dulled in extremes according to desire.<br />
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Primary among the delves into this evolution of the senses is the New Dawn Augmentation Movement. This is a Konyanger organization based on the improvement of the IPC lifestyle via modifying chassis, funded peculiarly by Terraneus Diagnostics. The movement is oddly organized as a non-profit, going against the corporation’s established modus operandi. This, coupled with the tantalizing opportunity to freely modify an IPC's form with donated funds leads to public skepticism of the augment movement’s motivations.<br />
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Still, the true size of the movement to augment and improve Konyang's IPC population is extraordinary in comparison to other stellar nations. Roughly 22% of Konyang IPCs have some form of corporate-funded augmentation to enhance themselves.<br />
[[File:Konyang augment1.png|thumb|A Konyanger design, the Scorpion Lobe is an augment which manipulates the perception of time for synthetics for better or worse.]]<br />
* '''SENSO-EVO/Scorpion Lobe'''<br />
A miraculous creation of Konyang's technological advancement, SENSO-EVO is the term aptly handed to Sensory Evolution's foremost product. This is the Scorpion Lobe, a similarly shaped attachment to the rear of a positronic brain which adjusts the rate at which the synthetic perceives time literally. The implications of this are seen as either a blessing or a curse — sometimes even utilized as a way to reduce problematic behavior in positronics.<br />
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These implants are commercialized to protect the integrity of brains which adopt extremely high speed tasks, or extremely tedious and slow ones, with a perception that best suits their given utility.<br />
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A double edged sword by nature, these are often removed by free positronic chassis due to their almost torturous nature. Some may find their lives flashing hours into moments, whilst others may find daily grinds to be impossibly long ordeals. Unfortunately, removing these implants is not always a safe procedure, sometimes damaging a brain or rendering the problem worse.<br />
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These were first manufactured by Hephaestus Industries on instrumental Konyang research facilities, and later acquired by Einstein Engines personnel in the same month - debates over the design’s origin have been ongoing since 2449.<br />
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===Recreational Software===<br />
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In the IPC community of Konyang, the culture of acceptance and freedom has always invited the curiosity of synthetics to imitate and follow human pastimes and habits. This in turn included activities such as smoking, synthetic flavours and eventually, recreational drugs. Due to the nature of the positronic, the only way to recreate such sensations is through software targeting and modifying specific programming in the brain. At first, this dangerous commodity was provided by amateur programmers using experimental and highly volatile code known as “overloaders”, leading to often irreparable and lethal damage to an IPC’s systems. The results of the few initial successes, however, proved promising enough for the idea to be seriously considered by upcoming Konyanger tech companies and business-oriented software engineers, leading to the first reliable and somewhat safe overloaders in the mid to late 2450s. <br />
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Popular awareness of recreational software became widespread upon its release as a commercial product, Konyang being the first world to introduce a marketable version of it. Usually sold inside a single-use stick drive, their circulation is approved by safety boards and is considered legal for responsible consumption, much like alcohol for organics, relying on the consumer for mitigation and avoidance of repeated use. Legal overloaders today can be found mainly in synthetic-centred retailers found around the major cities, their relatively limited availability and high price setting them as a luxury IPC item. Its effects include a wide range of results, from simulating the sensations of a light buzz to a short bout of excitement and joy, aimed at enhancing the experience at celebrations, parties and get-togethers.<br />
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However, where there is demand, there must be supply, and the fact that demand spiked as these new products launched paved the way to a large underground market of cheap, unsafe and highly unpredictable overloaders sold both by dealers and unlicensed street vendors of dubious reputation. An illegal overloader epidemic hitting the cities of Suwon and Boryeong in late 2459, led to intensified police crackdowns and government campaigns against illicit overloaders, labelling them as malware and the IPC equivalent of dangerous drugs. Virtually unrecognisable from a legitimate overloader without the seal, side effects are many times more powerful and addicting, appealing to adventurous synthetics and the financially insecure. From catapulting the positronic into a garbled, incomprehensive reality of simulated emotions to simply heightening the senses, the illegal overloaders’ addictive and dangerous nature leads many synthetics to disrepair, involving behaviour breaking glitches, hardware failures and more, all while guaranteeing a returning clientele.<br />
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Reception to recreational software has been mixed, dividing society and politicians on matters of free will, the dangers of overloaded IPC, and the overall ethics of deliberately creating and selling what are essentially drugs. Both synthetics and humans have loudly spoken against it, spawning demonstrations and dividing politicians across party lines. Legislation has already passed, categorising possession and distribution of illicit overdosers as strictly illegal, with heavy punishments for dealers and suppliers. Police and coast guard raids yield millions of unbranded overloaders each year, making highly publicised arrests while sending a message of absolute intolerance towards the malware. Despite this, circulation never ceases and exports to Xanu, Tau Ceti and Sol.<br />
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==Population and Major Cities==<br />
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[[File:Konyang_map_pol.png|thumb|800px|A map of Konyang showcasing the Prefectures and the New Hokkaido Territory. Click to enlarge.]]<br />
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'''Suwon''' is the largest, most populated, and second wealthiest city on Konyang itself and is generally one of the larger cities in the Coalition of Colonies. It functions as both the planetary capital, as well as the capital of Suwon Prefecture, encompassing the entirety of Cheomsongtang. Symbolic of the new government is the Parliament Building, a massive structure of flowing lines and sustainable technology, incorporating pieces of the first colony ship. The Prime Minister's Government House, the President's Crimson House, the Solarian embassy, as well as embassies from various Coalition states are present here as well. Standards of living in wealthiest areas of Suwon are equivalent to and (sometimes) even surpass the living standards of places such as Highland City or Argia sa Mar, demonstrating how wealthy the robotics boom has made some sectors of the planet. A lack of readily-available materials, however, ensures that even the super-rich of Konyang often live in smaller houses than their Colonies planet counterparts. Life outside these wealthy areas is better than life in most cities in Himeo but dramatically worse than in the very wealthy areas, or even the cities of Xanu Prime. Overcrowding is a massive issue for the government of the city, with no obvious solution presenting itself due to how expensive importing new building materials is post-boom. The city is home to most of Konyang's biggest companies and office complexes, as well as the Suwon Stock Exchange, making the city's financial district the economy's beating heart. "Shoebox apartments" are common here, as are Konyang's often egregious traffic issues. The city is fortified with extensive sea walls, flood walls and flood gates to prevent natural disasters during the wet season, tropical storms being fairly common.<br />
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[[File:Point verdant.png|thumb|One of Aoyama's many skyscraper blocks, safely located behind a dam.]]<br />
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'''Aoyama''', known in the larger Spur as '''Point Verdant''', is the second most-populated city on Konyang, and the industrial heart of its robotics industry. Built along a coastal mountain range from which it draws its namesake, it is by far the wealthiest city on Konyang, and one of the richest cities in the Coalition of Colonies. Due to being home of the Robotics Boom, hosting foreigners and their families that once even surpassed the locals inside the city, Aoyama is frequently known outside to outsiders and to the Spur at large as Point Verdant, much to the chagrin of the locals. Aoyama is home to the renowned Point Verdant Terraneus Institute of AI Research, and is the poster child for the rapid development of Konyang's cities during the Boom. The city is extremely wealthy, but suffers from persistent overcrowding and traffic issues in all of its districts. The Pusan District, near PVTI, had the reputation of possessing the worst traffic in the Alliance according to its residents. Air quality in Aoyama is regarded as subpar, due to the amount of robotics factories in the city's outskirts, which have however slowly but steadily declined since. Being the focal point of the Robotics Boom, it is home to a large number of expatriate communities and Einstein Engines employees.<br />
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'''Boryeong''', named after a city on historical Earth where some of its colonists originated from, is the third most populated city on Konyang and capital of the Boryeong Prefecture, referred to as the breadbasket of the nation. The city, while still suffering overcrowding issues, has it to a lesser extent than Point Verdant or Suwon, with the city's outskirts necessitating a need for space due to the vast hydroponics farms and water plants. A second-grade industrial city of much natural beauty, Boryeong is more rustic than its counterparts, with wood playing a much more prominent role in construction; outside the central ring, some of Boryeong's districts are built entirely out of timber. Water bottled or processed in Boryeong is sold throughout the Alliance and Coalition in bulk, and native moss grown in the prefecture is marketed throughout both as a luxury food. Over half of the city's labourers are employed in hydroponics, aquaculture, fishing and food processing, with Gwok Foods being the largest provider of work in the region. Synthetic moss is grown in Zeng-Hu facilities near Boryeong and, despite being regarded as lesser quality than natural moss, is often consumed in poorer areas of Konyang. <br />
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'''Ganzaodeng''', named for its dry locale, is located in Konyang's only desert and holds the largest expatriate populations on the planet, being nicknamed, “Little Sol”. Due to its unique geographic setting, it faces remarkably calmer weather than the rest of the planet, with the city being connected to the rest of the island by air and rail that cuts right through the mountains. Ganzaodeng is Konyang's only planned city with origins in the Robotics Boom, when the foundations were laid for a city envisioned by foreigners, for foreigners. Rich Solarians descended upon the planet's seemingly only dry piece of real estate, building a city full of nightlife and eclectic inner-ring pleasures within the distant colony. By the end of the Boom however, the city's famous strips of casinos and luxury hotels still operating in downtown Ganzaodeng became a symbol of a bygone era, as much of the Solarian population elected to depart. The city passed into native Konyanger hands, being expanded into a hub of shipping with the help of the city's remaining big names. Because of the reliably clear weather, Ganzaodeng has developed a sprawling extraplanetary shipping sector, with plans for a spaceport larger than New Hong Kong’s, as well as future schemes for the largest oceangoing port on the planet. Its climate has resulted in the prefectural government engaging in moss filtration efforts to open up the surrounding beaches to tourism. Despite of the Solarian exodus, the city stands in contrast to the rest of Konyang’s relatively conservative social nature, with people from all over the Spur calling it their home and making it by far one of the most multicultural centers on the planet. It’s not uncommon for a person from Ganzaodeng to know two or three languages.<br />
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'''New Hong Kong''', the site of the former naval base of the 58th Solarian Fleet, has now developed into a fully fledged city in its own right, being the only prefectural capital with a local synthetic majority. Being regarded as a lot more pedestrian and working-class than Suwon and Point Verdant, New Hong Kong is nonetheless a very important centre of interplanetary trade and commercial activity, hosting the planet’s largest ocean ports and dockyards, being the country's industrial's hotspot and the seat of power generation. Large hydroelectric dams, wave energy converters, dockyards and factories belonging to the PACHROM corporation provide employment for half of the city’s inhabitants, the Prefecture of New Hong Kong generating enough electricity for domestic consumption as well as exports. Employees of the various power companies may also elect to be sent off to one of the many power generation isles scattered throughout the oceans and dedicated solely to that purpose, receiving better pay in exchange for more dangerous conditions away from home. The city itself is considerably more packed than its counterparts, with small cramped apartments being stacked over each other to form vertical mazes of working class blocks. Heavy smog and particles cover up the sky through the entirety of the island during the dry season, giving the prefecture a signature orange-brown tint. This, as well as constant heavy rains and a near permanent gloomy weather during the wet season place it as undesirable for humans. Seat of the National Party, downtown New Hong Kong is described as the centre of planetary IPC politics, being the first to react to, condemning or praising events in Konyang and throughout the galactic stage in regards to the synthetic “race”. New Hong Kong is additionally the birthplace of Konyang's labor unions, with the Socialist Party enjoying strong support from the city's human blue-collar workforce.<br />
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[[File:Konyangdam.png|thumb|900px|center|Dams are a very common sight on Konyang, with the New Hong Kong's dam in the neighbouring industrial town of New Kowloon providing only a fraction of the power required by the city, while also playing an important part in flood control and water filtration.]]<br />
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[[Category:Pages]]</div>The Strykerhttps://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=Konyanger_Culture_and_Society&diff=32021Konyanger Culture and Society2024-02-21T14:37:08Z<p>The Stryker: adds additional comic</p>
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==Demographics==<br />
Konyang’s ethnic mix up is far less diverse than other Human planets’, resulting in a strongly homogenous population with a significant expatriate minority. Since the beginning, Konyang's colonists were made up almost entirely of ethnic Koreans, Japanese and Chinese, with any other Alliance nationalities representing a tiny fraction of it. With a reduced enticement from immigration due to the planet's remoteness and lack of any significant development, the situation stayed more or less the same, until Konyang's Robotics Boom, which catapulted the colony to one of great interest. Millions of foreign workers, scientists and corporate employees flocked to the planet to participate and share in its newly found fortune, creating expatriate communities of their own and injecting much-desired capital to fuel the rapid development of the economy. Such was the impact of the migration that the foreigners outnumbered the native Japanese Konyangers of Aoyama, making the city known to the wider world as Point Verdant, after the name of the local Terraneus Diagnostics facility which was home to the birth of the positronic brain.<br />
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Since then however, the return of normality after the twilight of the Boom led to the majority of foreigners leaving; the prime draw of positronic AI had spread away from Konyang and into the rest of the Alliance. The expatriates thus abandoned Konyang just as fast as they had arrived, leaving behind significant economic development and derelict industrial zones alike. While the percentage of foreigners on Konyang is now less than 2% of the total population, their numbers would soon be replaced by a rapidly rising IPC community. Presently, while virtually all citizens identify as Konyanger nationals, heritage remains a part of people's identity, as reflected in their names, the local dialect, religion and customs, even with a lot of fusions between the three cultural groups. The prefectures of Suwon and Boryeong are primarily of Korean heritage while Aoyama boasts of a Japanese heritage. New Hong Kong has always been a stronghold of a Chinese and Cantonese majority, with Ganzaodeng following last as the least populous prefecture on Konyang, with a heavy mixup of Chinese and foreigner communities. IPCs are present in all urban centers and rural areas, with most of them residing in New Hong Kong, followed by Aoyama.<br />
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==Linguistics==<br />
Konyang's Earther heritage is vibrant and evident in the customs and languages that people speak. In every city, town and village, one will come across the local language being written and spoken alongside the planet's version of Sol Common, a practice that has become standard in a country that pursues equality between its constituent ethnicities and their unification under a common Konyanger identity. Over 70% of Konyangers are bilingual, having a grasp of their original Earther language. Many families especially in the countryside speak their regional language at home, leading to new generations perpetuating the practice and even preferring it to Sol Common. Prefectural schools also offer them as optional courses, with deeper learning being available in the form of local languages institutes and prefectural universities.<br />
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'''Konyang Solarian Common'''<br />
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The Konyang Solarian Common, also known as Konyang Common, is the official language of the state, spoken by virtually everyone on the planet and considered the standard language for everyday life. It is a dialect of Solarian Common, with the two having mutual intelligibility to a substantial level. Their differences lie mainly in the vocabulary, with Konyang Common replacing many words of descent foreign to the East Asia region of Earth, while staying more or less grammatically similar. Another significant difference is the complete absence of the Latin script in written Konyang Common, with solely the simplified Han system being in use. While this makes the language able to be spoken by Solarians, many find it difficult to read and write if they do not possess knowledge of the Han script. Konyang Common is an obligatory subject taught in every school, and every IPC citizen activated in the country receives it as a pre-programmed language datapack. While many families are bilingual, there are those that can only communicate in Common, especially in Suwon and the other melting-pot urban centers. The similar origin to the regional languages however, guarantees a certain level of mutual intelligibility. Konyang Common is also the language in exclusive use by the military.<br />
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'''Hangugeo'''<br />
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Hangugeo is the second most spoken language with its own script, directly descended from the Earther Korean language. It is spoken by about one third of the country and is more prevalent in Suwon, Boryeong and Point Verdant. Hangugeo can be taught in schools as an optional course in virtually all prefectures, though many children learn it from home at an early age. Many villages in Suwon and Boryeong only communicate with Hangugeo, which is also the language of countless rituals, festivals and religious functions in these lands. One can observe the prevalence of this language in Suwon during the night, with some roads being neon-lit with signage exclusively in Hangugego. Official government buildings in the two prefectures also feature both Common and Hangugeo, as do traffic signs, instruction books, local holovision channels, and more.<br />
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'''Nihongo'''<br />
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Nihongo is a language with its own script, descended from the Japanese language of Earth. Brought to Konyang by the settlers originating from the Japanese islands, it is spoken primarily in Aoyama and Suwon, though Nihongo speaking communities can be found all over Konyang. It features prominently on official signage all over Aoyama and the islands within that prefecture, but is otherwise not encountered in the rest of Konyang as greatly as Hangugeo. Nihongo also dominates every aspect of the Shinto religion, and many pieces of culture such as poems and books are written in the language, adorning the national libraries of the state. A strongmovement of writers and artists in Aoyama has recently become the backbone of an effort to spead the use of Nihongo across the country, leading to a resurgence of interest in the cities aimed at boosting the literacy of Konyangers of Japanese heritage in the language.<br />
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'''Hanyu'''<br />
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Hanyu is a language sharing the Han script and many similarities with Konyanger Common, and is as such the easiest to understand for many Konyangers. Spoken and seen primarily in New Hong Kong and Ganzaodeng, Hanyu is the language most connected in the minds of many to the planet's blue-collar industrial workforce, with tidbits of it always able to be heard in every hydroelectric dam, sea wall and shipyard in the New Hong Kong prefecture. Used alongside it by Konyangers of South Chinese descent is a unique dialect and standalone language known as '''Gwondungwa''', spoken widely in many parts of New Hong Kong such as New Kowloon. Outside New Hong Kong, Hanyu can sometimes be followed by an unfortunate reputation; the language's connection to the Triad clans of the Benevolent Guild is something that many Chinese Konyangers are regretful of, with many PR campaigns throughout the prefecture's time having been aimed at rehabilitating the image of Hanyu and Gwondungwa in the eyes of public opinion.<br />
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'''Encoded Audio Language'''<br />
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Encoded Audio Language is a most widely spoken language, owing to the planet’s nearly positronic inhabitants, all of which are programmed by default to speak it. It is not a language that the human ear can comprehend, appearing as various pitches of white noise, accompanied by beeping sounds that only a machine can make. It has no script, instead relying on machine-readable mediums such as linear and matrix barcodes. Its compact form and IPC-friendly Konyanger culture makes it by far the most prevalent language in signage, with hundreds of words able to be conveyed instantaneously to IPC shoppers, workers, home media consumers and more with a single line of barcode. It is by law attached to all important official notices and signage, alongside Konyang Common, which IPCs are also taught to speak.<br />
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'''Others'''<br />
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Tradeband is a language of Solarian origin with its own Latin script. It appears only sporadically in exclusively expatriate communities in Point Verdant and Ganzaodeng. Its foreign nature and Romance sounds are steadily turning it into a language of prestige and luxury amongst the higher circles, with Tradeband speakers believing they possess a grade of richness and exoticism over their peers. For many Konyangers, being able to communicate in Tradeband brings up an image of high-end deals with foreign Solarian businessmen, fine Idris suits and expensive watches.<br />
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Freespeak is a language brought to Konyang through its constant dealings with the nearby Coalition of Colonies, the then Frontier Alliance. Despite its foreign origins, it has grown into a language of trade, with many Konyanger merchants being forced to learn it for their dealings with neighboring worlds. It is offered in schools as an optional language course, with many families now encouraging their children to learn Freespeak in the face of the recent accession into the Coalition. Freespeak is also a language that many in the pro-Solarian political circles steer clear of, regarding it as a tongue spoken by traitors and colonists whose ties to the Alliance are long lost.<br />
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Tau Ceti Basic is a language of Solarian origin that while previously confined in the expatriate and corporate circles, it has seen a significant rise in popularity within Konyanger society in the last 2 years or so, owing to an increase in dealings with Tau Ceti and its megacorporations. Many young people are particularly exposed to Bieselite media, making them inclined to adopt a conversational skill in the admittedly easy to learn Basic. The language is also connected to the vast influence of megacorporations that exist outside of Konyang, and many have to learn it if they wish to find employment within Nanotrasen and the SCC.<br />
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==Religion and Holidays==<br />
[[File:Konyangreligion.png|400px|right]]<br />
The Republic of Konyang is a secular state with no official religion. With around 72% of the population professing no faith, it nonetheless maintains strong communities of various religions carried over from the colonists’ home countries. The urban areas are the most irreligious compared to the rural towns and villages, the people of which are regarded as more spiritual in general. While shrines and temples do exist in most cities, it is the countryside where one can see them dotted out in the jungles and mountain ranges, maintained by the local communities.<br />
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Despite the predominant atheism or agnosticism in Konyanger society, religious traditions remain a significant part of the national culture. Government mandated public holidays often fall on the same days as major religious holidays, cabinet members and local officials regularly pay visits at major shrines, while nominally religious festivals have become cultural staples in all five prefectural capitals, attracting thousands every year. Ancient traditional dress that was once lost to the adoption of streetwear and business attire, has been revived and preserved through direct connection with certain faiths. It is then frequently worn and enjoyed by millions during these days, ensuring the original cultures’ continuation while making artisans and craftsmen in towns and villages thrive.<br />
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'''Folk Religions'''<br />
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A blanket term for the myriad of local faiths, ranging from or incorporating elements of shamanism, polytheism and animism, folk religions are most frequently found in settlements outside urban centers. There is no semblance of organization, with each community usually having their own deities and customs, which usually share elements with the faiths of nearby villages or the wider area. They are heavily influenced by the settlers’ original ethnicities, becoming vastly different in terms of language, dress and traditions depending on the Hangukin, Nihonjin and Zhongguorin origins. During the nearly 150 years of Konyang’s settlement, many new distinctly Konyanger folk religions have sprung up, mostly centered around the rich natural environment or fauna. Positronics are usually welcome to partake if they wish, with a few IPCs known to have become shamans and priests in their local communities. Folk festivals are usually organized between villages and nearby towns in tandem with the secular authorities, with virtually every area enjoying some sort of regional celebration.<br />
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'''Shinto'''<br />
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A religion of exclusively Japanese origin, Shinto is a nonetheless disorganized religion revolving around the existence of kami - minor and major deities connected with the natural world and various aspects of daily life. Initially mostly encountered in the Aoyama prefecture, Shinto practitioners can today be found everywhere, the religion having been adopted by many Konyangers all over the globe. Ever since the arrival on the planet, many new kami have been created or fused with old ones, giving Konyanger Shintoism a distinct identity. A central aspect of Shinto are shrines dedicated to kamis as a place where they can be venerated. Shrines are structures which can vary greatly in their size and architecture, and are usually maintained by the temple’s shrine maidens. Many Konyanger households have also adopted their own house altars, called kamidana, for the enshrining of kami. This has also progressed into a secular tradition as well, with many kamidana being present in a house to grant a family prosperity and good luck. Torii gates are also another cultural icon of Konyang and the Aoyama province in particular, where their presence marks the grounds of a shrine. They can be found commonly in the countryside, with many remaining hidden in jungles and overtaken by moss.<br />
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'''Buddhism'''<br />
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Another blanket term for the many sects of Buddhist teachings originating from East Asia, Buddhist religious elements can be found throughout Konyang in households of all origins. Based on tenets brought to the planet since its colonization, it is most famous on Konyang for the few of its monasteries present in the mountain ranges, as well as its rich history and traditions that have heavy influences in Shinto and many of the folk religions. Buddhist monastic communities are considered a significant part of Konyager heritage that attract hundreds of thousands of visitors every year, with specially designated monasteries allowed to operate freely on land donated by the prefecture.<br />
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'''Chondo'''<br />
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A peasant religion at its core, Chondoism is geographically limited to the coastal areas of Boryeong and Suwon, having a strong association with the piratical sea bandit factions and the downtrodden villages. Having entered a period of transformation and rebirth, it revolves around teachings of social equality under a God, challenging the establishment and building a bond between the rural peasantry for the improvement of their situation. Described more as a movement or political expression rather than a religion, Chondoism doesn’t possess any meaningful formal organization, festivals or temples, with many people mixing up Chondo teachings in the folk religions they actually practice. Due to its association with the sea bandits, practitioners of Chondo are looked on with suspicion by both the public and the state.<br />
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'''Trinary Perfection'''<br />
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The Trinary Perfection is the newest and an almost exclusively positronic religion with a few human followers, preaching the divinity of synthetic life and its eventual ascension with the help of organics for a better future. It is primarily located in Aoyama, with the nearby drone vaults considered a holy place and popular Trinarist pilgrimage destination. It is one of the few formally organized religions, and is somewhat unpopular with the general public and many secular IPCs, due to the perceived teachings of superiority of synthetics over humans. This unpopularity has sometimes gotten out of hand, with protests and violence against Trinary clerics and followers, requiring a substantial police presence around the Trinarist cathedral and other places of worship.<br />
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The most notable locations for the Trinary Perfection on the planet are the '''Cathedral of the First Positronic''' and '''Vault Provenance'''. The Cathedral of the First Positronic is a holy site that was built by repurposing a nearby vault. Meanwhile Vault Provenance, a name given by the Trinary Perfection clergy, was the vault which held the drones that led to the development of the first positronic brain. Tens of thousands of the Perfection’s faithful make pilgrimages to both sites, and the money these pilgrims inject into Konyang’s economy has been cited as another reason as to why the planet tolerates its presence. Trinary clergy are often educated on Konyang, and many of the highest-ranking officials in the faith were built on the planet.<br />
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'''Other'''<br />
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Christianity, Islam and other religions and religious movements have found a home in Konyang, having been brought over by both the original colonists as well as the immigrants during the Robotics Boom. These communities have their own temples, clerics and followers in the major cities, being allowed to practice freely under Konyang's tolerant legislation. Out of them, Christianity is the most popular with the native Konyangers, as some ethnic Koreans have professed the Christian faith since their arrival. All are however largely regarded as "foreign" by the vast majority of the population, who treat them with either indifference or benign curiosity.<br />
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Some notable holidays and festivals include:<br />
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'''Qixian New Year: January 15th'''<br />
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Adopted directly by all three communities from their original shared tradition, the Konyanger Qixian New Year is the most significant and widely celebrated day on the planet’s religious and secular calendar. Taking place yearly on the 15th of January, the date was standardized early on by the government to resolve disputes between the planet’s religions and religious sects that used their own versions of the Lunar and Qixian calendars. Hydrologically, it marks the beginning of the High Tides.<br />
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Fireworks are extensively used to mark the occasion at midnight, with people taking to the streets in major cities, towns and villages for the New Year Parade. The parade itself is the central and grandest spectacle of the night, and almost every organized institution in Konyang, from the military to the universities, takes part with dedicated parade teams. The paraders don traditional outfits and carry around enormous and overly decorated sculptures of animals or effigies of deities made of metal, wood or paper. Friendly rivalry is a strong element of the parade, with the participants trying to outdo each other in the creativity, amount and craftsmanship of their icon by grabbing the attention of the crowds. Alcohol, games and street candy are also major parts of the festivities, which reserve entire city blocks for the plethora of shop stands that are put up for the night, as well as the parade itself. In Suwon, it is tradition for the Prime Minister to attend from the veranda of Government House, underneath which the parade always goes through. A remnant from colonial times, this was a prime opportunity for the parade goers to tastefully voice their approval or discontent for the government through subtle signs on the sculptures, chants or dance moves as they passed under the balcony, though it’s not rare for this to get out of hand in times of economic strain and hardship.<br />
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For the religious aspect of the holiday, most practitioners start preparing from Qixian New Year’s Eve, with offerings or local religious celebrations and small festivals, mostly in the rural areas. Exchange of gifts is also widespread and varies from area to area, depending on the local culture and predominant religion. Dried moss is a particularly commonplace gift in the Suwon and Boryeong prefectures, meant to give the other person courage to last until the dry season. For most people however, the credit-filled red or white envelope never ceases to be a New Year’s classic, expected by all Konyanger children.<br />
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==Konyanger Culture==<br />
Having settled on the planet some two hundred years ago, the people of Konyang have brought with them the societal norms, traditions and culture of their original lands from Earth's East Asia region. While migrant waves during the country's Robotics Boom introduced a myriad of new and different communities in the cities, these have had little impact on Konyanger society at large, which has been shaped by its original ethnicities' backgrounds, its colonial history, and the most recent embrace of IPCs into daily life. Said synthetics now make up a large percentage of the population, adding their own uniqueness and enhancing Konyang's cultural field, despite being brought up to follow the norms established by their human compatriots. By and large, the most fundamental aspects of being a Konyanger are followed in every region of the planet, though each national prefecture has developed its own peculiarities, from local cuisine and fashion, to religion and outlook on life. <br />
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===The Three Values===<br />
Konyangers are raised to silently follow some core values, infused into them by both their families and the wider society around them. They are not named, nor are they set in stone or officially taught. Scholars however have grouped them in the three main categories of '''Harmony''', '''Reciprocity''', and '''Face''', around which most values revolve.<br />
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'''Harmony''' regards how a person fits in with their environment, conforming with a strict social establishment and expectations. It is a key aspect everywhere, and is how Konyangers perceive a functioning and well organised society. Standing out is permitted within boundaries, with contemporary fads being accepted as just that, and not something that is allowed to disrupt the established order and traditions of the wider public. In the cities, children are expected to follow certain predetermined paths, get a stable career and provide for their parents later in life. Questioning rules is something an adult will do with great difficulty and consideration, while silently enduring a situation is viewed as a sign of great virtue and patience. A proper Konyanger is always expected to be courteous towards strangers and the elders, as well as maintain a level of awareness of the public mood and their surroundings. Talking above a whisper on a packed city bus or train for example, would be considered rather awkward, or even rude, by the rest of the passengers. This emphasis on social harmony on Konyang can go to lengths that people from other countries may find weird; never will a Konyanger think of cutting in line as they stand in a queue, nor will it cross their mind to cross a road in the city without going through the crosswalk or under a red light, even in light traffic. Asking for a raise is considered taboo, and in many cases workers will find their careers reaching a ceiling due to the fallout of transfering to a different company. Penalties for breaking the social harmony are not immediately apparent to an outsider, since complaining of one's behavior and creating a scene is not something that most Konyangers will find easy to do, nor will the police be called in most cases unless the act is egregious or criminal. For a person living there however, it is something that becomes apparent for both themselves and their close ones. Especially in more tight knit communities in the towns and villages of the countryside, ostracization is a real threat a person's social environment can use against them to prevent them from standing out.<br />
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'''Reciprocity''' is a concept not dissimilar to the sense of community that many other colonial nations experienced during their founding days, still persisting in daily life on Konyang. It is the sense that people have a duty to assist eachother, even if they are unacquainted. This is extremely prevalent in the rural areas, where the smaller populations create a more personal dimension between the inhabitants of the village. Trading for goods and services between neighbors and families is a very common thing both there and in the cities, stemming directly from the cultural phenomenon of reciprocity. On Konyang, when someone offers help, it is only proper for you to offer something in return at some point in the future. This may range from something simple such as hand-me-down clothes or groceries, to favors or even sums of money. Everyone, no matter their situation, is expected to participate in this process according to their means; During certain holidays or festivities, families keep track of others that they need to reciprocate to, often leading to huge dinners with entire city blocks or the whole village coming to celebrate together.<br />
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'''Face''' is a broad and hard to translate culmination of all the above virtues, critical to the fabric of society. It can be considered to be the "social capital" for a Konyanger and their family, determined by the set of appearances and behaviors they use to interact with the world. As long as a person progresses according to societal rules, keeping up with the ideals of harmony and reciprocity, they are said to have "face". This is an important concept applying to all rungs of society, as average individuals and the biggest Konyanger conglomerates alike strive to maintain their level of dignity and honor. Without it one is considered to live in disgrace, affecting both themselves and anyone whom they might associate with. A person who has suffered a loss of face may, for example, be excluded from social events, be avoided on the street or even lose their job on account of strict Konyanger corporate ethics codes. Families tend hide the more "shameful" secrets in fear that they might be discovered, particularly in the countryside, and disgraced family members are often not spoken of again until their face is sufficiently rehabilitated. Public functionaries and well-known figures are also extremely considerate of their image, with scandals in both government and the corporate world often leading to scapegoating and ceremonial dismissal of those deemed at fault. It is not uncommon for low-level business officials to resign in disgrace on live TV, begging the public's forgiveness and taking the blame so that their company can save face.<br />
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The social pressure upon Konyangers has always been enormous compared to other developed planets across the Spur, though more and more young people rise to question and reject the status quo. Counterculture movements have always been prevalent in the cities, especially amongst the student movements both in the present day and during colonial times. Resistance to what they call an oppressive social regime has led to the emergence of new genres of music, fashion and art, with the youth pioneering ever more novel and often provocative forms of self expression. While older generations and society at large may consider them "fads" and "phases" that the youth will eventually "grow up" from, it is largely from these culture movements that things such as IPC rights rose from to become widespread and staple elements of Konyang.<br />
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===Work Culture===<br />
White collar employment is a major part of millions of Konyangers' lives, more so than people from other countries. Working for a local company is something a lot more intricate than how it is abroad, transcending the personal dimension one might have about their pay and career. For a Konyanger conglomerate, employment is a bond between the employer and the employee, from which both rights and responsibilities are born. Loyalty to the workplace plays a great role in people's lives, with employees expected to remain in their position for even their entire careers. Raises, promotions and benefits are handed out primarily based on time served rather than merit, rewarding the quiet and dedicated office worker. Knowing your place in the chain is very important in the office, as is observing decorum and the usually strict dress and ethics codes put down by the company. Unspoken rules dominate these environments, creating their own microcosm that reflects and accentuates the three values of Konyanger culture. It is custom that management treat their employees as part of an extended family; Konyanger corporations and firms have some of the best benefits packages, while no matter how badly underperforming, a loyal employee will never be fired, almost certainly receiving some sort of different post or responsiility that will accommodate them better instead. In exchange, full adherence to company rules is demanded, as well as a variety of personal initiatives will be expected, even if they are not included in the official responsibilities of the job. Personal donations for office events, undertaking additional work and regular overtime are very common expectations for workers, with the last two being particularly taxing. The old Earther concept of a "salaryman" is fully translatable to Konyang's white collar corporate culture, with many people putting work above their personal lives, often to a fault. Those that are unable to or refuse to integrate with the system are silently and swiftly pushed out, losing face and reputation between the corporate circles, blackening their record and significantly diminishing their chances of working at a different large Konyanger company.<br />
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The introduction of synthetics has exacerbated the workload issue. Konyanger employees are always expected to put in more hours to remain competitive against their synthetic counterparts, many of them willing to go to far greater lengths than what is healthy or required by their employer. The issue, particularly in Suwon, has grown to such an extent that local laws were passed, limiting IPC overtime work as well as making leaves mandatory for them in order for humans to catch up more easily. Such legislation has been fiercely debated as unconstitutional and infringing on the rights of synthetic citizens, nonetheless remaining in effect as a temporary, much needed measure. While a strong work ethic is a very common trait, the rural populace is generally more relaxed than their urban counterparts.<br />
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Most private local conglomerates such as PACHROM, big law firms, banks or shipping companies are more often than not exclusively interested in hiring Konyangers, Konyanger IPCs or people of shared descent, turning away foreigners apart from token numbers each year. This is due to a widespread perception that only Konyangers understand the fundamentals of the corporate culture, and thus will conform and not raise issues about the more oppressive elements of their employment. The more artistically inclined studios such as Konymation however, regularly bring in talent from abroad to enrich their style and productions. Creativity in Konyang's media industry is encouraged to thrive in the workplace, and while crunching and overtime are not unheard of, most studios are admittedly more relaxed environments compared to the strict office complexes. Blue collar work on the other hand, largely is in a rather different situation when it comes to obligations and expectations. As Konyang's industrial heartland rests within the prefecture of New Hong Kong, the concepts of forced overtime, unwritten rules and subservience to management do not exist, thanks to the region's history of robust labor unions and collective bargaining.<br />
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==Life in Konyang==<br />
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===Urban Life===<br />
The Konyang of the 2460s bears little resemblance to the minor colony of 2305. Expansive cities dot its islands, with everyday life flowing very similarly to other advanced societies abroad. Its major urban centers are the respective capitals of each prefecture, with Suwon, Point Verdant and New Hong Kong having the heaviest density. Living in these areas has both its advantages and drawbacks, as Konyang's challenging landscape required innovative and compact planning. Surrounded by the sea on one side and either jungle, mountains, or both on the other, Konyanger cities tend to follow a pattern which consists of a sprawling and chaotic urban network orbiting dense downtowns. Cramped apartment blocks are particularly popular an unfortunate staple of the planet's "city charm", with the majority of the denizens living in so called "shoebox studios" due to the limited planning space and the general lack of raw materials such as steel. In the city, a large living space is a luxury that few can afford without sacrificing proximity to the central districts, where most of the economic activity is present. High rents are the norm in these situations, and unsurprisingly, the rich have the best pieces of real estate in Suwon and Point Verdant, owning entire buildings or large apartments with a seaside view in the heart of the urban center.<br />
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Apart from the job security and higher salaries offered by office work, urban life on Konyang presents limitless opportunities for nightlife and entertainment, as well as bustling shopping districts dedicated entirely to attracting tourists and people from out of town. Additionally, services are very well developed in the cities, with a shop at every corner catered to every need a person might virtually have. Small restaurants and takeout spots provide much needed and cheap hot meals for salarymen to grab during their small lunch breaks, many situated strategically within convenient reach of the big firms and office complexes. Healthcare and repairs are readily available in the form of hospitals and KRC clinics, as well as ready access to the country's biggest ports and space shuttledromes. Public transport is managed through a system of light urban rail and buses, and is regarded as essential for day-to-day movement; thanks to the rapid expansion during the Robotics Boom, poor planning has resulted in mazes of roads that are near always congested. Car traffic can delay commuters for hours in the overcrowded cities, despite Konyang's automobile industry trying to create even more compact and energy efficient cars. The snarled traffic is, in an odd way, a symbol of pride for some Konyangers. The mere fact that they have enough vehicles to have traffic issues is, compared to the rest of the outer ring, a symbol of the prosperity that has resulted from the planet's robotics industry.<br />
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However, smaller towns outside of the more famous centers have a different standard of living, with most being employed in water-related industries or manufacturing jobs. Wood is used as the primary material for construction, giving Konyanger towns a signature look that mixes modern technological achievements with centuries-old designs. A significant upside to life in these areas is the relative abundance of space, allowing for single-house homes outside of the centers, attracting pensioners and large working class families. Most towns are sustained by a nearby farming complex, dam or industrial center where the majority of the population is employed, while additionally serving as a hub for the surrounding villages that depend on it. Regional health centers, schools and other services can in many cases only be found at such towns, making them beacons for the wider area. The standard is not the same for all however, as many of these former "boom towns" of the robotics industry are entering into a spiral of decay due to an inability to continue to maintain their buildings and utilities. The cessation of government grants from the Alliance, the increase in price of construction materials from the offworld and many more calamities brought on by the phoron shortage have made these places unsustainable, leading to a flight of the younger population in waves of increased urbanization, contributing negatively to the growth and skyrocketing the mean age of the inhabitants.<br />
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===Rural Life===<br />
[[File:Pylon.png|thumb|right|Convoluted electricity pylons are a very common sight in the countryside.]]<br />
Life in less populated areas and islands is generally regarded as more carefree, with coastal villages being relatively self-sustaining and liberated from the complicated stresses and cramped environments found in cities. Such settlements are dedicated to aquaculture, farming algae, as well as moss collection. One would struggle to find a village not built almost entirely out of wood, with lumberyards frequently dotting the countryside to exploit the lush jungles. Fishing is a major source of subsistence for rural people, with Konyangers being taught how to fish an take to the sea from a relatively young age. Most families usually own a boat, passed down from each generation to the next as a heirloom and major financial asset. Needless to say, virtually all Konyangers are apt swimmers from childhood, with diving being regarded as both a popular sport and a timeless tradition; some villages specialize in the export of certain goods that must be collected underwater by hand, at reefs and moss-covered seabeds, requiring diving which is often done without equipment. Farming, to a more limited extent, is also a big source of income for rural families. As adequately sized clearings are rare in the surrounding jungle, conventionally farming the boggy, heavily wooded Konyanger terrain is impossible without the low-scale terraforming conducted in the early colonial days. Today, most "farmers" delve into their plots of land inside the jungle to harvest the fruit, moss and other goods that grow naturally. Surprising as it may be, many IPCs find themselves in these communities, finding work in manual labour or in the fields. Considered fully integrated, synthetics participate fully in a village's social life, playing an important part of the social fabric and the workforce. It is not uncommon for a village to possess a KRC repair station and charging spots dedicated to positronics, and village shops are always stocked with goods and materials specifically for the IPC inhabitants.<br />
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Much care is given to keep the traditions of the original colonists alive, with old rituals thriving and sometimes only found in the rural villages. Shrines belonging to local religions are placed in prominent positions within the village, with many rural Konyangers having some form of memory of themselves playing, praying or celebrating in the presence of a statue of an animal deity or god. Traditional music, instruments and the art of making them remain vibrant in countryside culture as well, being in stark difference to the heavily industrialized electronic and pop music of the cities. Most crucial and known of all are the festivals, with every village being known for their own unique twist and tradition. People from all over the world flock to the rural areas during the holidays just to attend, with many involving big parades, shows, games and large amounts of local delicacies. The government is very supporting of such customs, not only for the planet’s cultural heritage but also as an important tourist attraction for both Alliance and Coalition visitors. Religious undertones are a lot more prominent in these celebrations and in village life in general, as are the concepts of family and conservative Konyanger values; respect and reverence of ancestors and the elderly are particularly important.<br />
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===Mariner Life===<br />
Sailors, workers in remote hydroelectric rigs, radio technicians on scattered islands and anyone else who spends considerable amounts of time surrounded by the planet's vast seas and oceans is considered a mariner, an often thankless line of work in which millions of people are engaged. A life at sea means a life away from the comfort of family and friends, a life filled with danger and the unknown. As such, a stoic outlook is often required to cope with these harsh realities, with many aged mariners are hardened from decades of hard work and struggle against waves, cold and rain. In fact, the sight of thick, worn-out raincoats is indicative of a person's life as a mariner, with flocks of yell and orange-jacketed figures being very common in the large port-towns and cities of Konyang. Sailors and outpost technicians are expected to spend multiple months on a journey or at their post, the former sometimes being afforded short breaks at various resupply stops along the way. This lifestyle is not for naught however, as salaries for these professions far exceed the wages of corresponding employment on land. Many mariners can afford to both support a family and bank funds for the future, their income imrpoving substantially as they move up the ranks. Entire coastal villages and towns offer up their men, women and synthetics to the sea, who in turn bring back enough capital to completely transform the area with beautiful buildings and public spaces; the nicer a coastal settlement appears, the more chances it is dedicated to some mariner-related industry. It is not uncommon for even the lowliest of sailors to eventually own a vacation home in the countryside in addition to their primary residence, and many high-ranking captains and rig managers combine their wages to purchase their own merchant ship, giving birth to an ever increasing number of shipping companies.<br />
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The mariner lifestyle has subsequently created a specific subculture they and their families all in some way or another share, involving both traditional Konyanger values and traditions of the sea. Fidelity and supportiveness are particularly important for the mariner's relatives to exhibit, and it is in some way socially mandated. Seafarers regularly receive gifts, provisions and mail from home or the locals in the more distant ports they visit, and households may throw large parties to celebrate the homecoming of a relative after a particularly lenghty journey. Religious talismans and charms are sometimes carried for good luck, though most are generally not superstitious. Cleanliness is a point of pride for mariners, and since freshwater is not an issue, a clean shaven appearance is extremely common on ships and sea stations.<br />
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==Media==<br />
Public media in Konyang is a powerful industry, and as broad as it may seem, it is very tightly knit. Aside from galactic-wide reruns and broadcasts of other nation’s shows, little seems to stand out - except the audio broadcast and illustrated artistic avenues. These two are well-refined artistic giants compared to other forms of entertainment on the planet.<br />
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A huge portion of the planet’s political views and very “personality” are channeled through its larger studios, where many are found enthused to spread its culture galaxy-wide.<br />
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===Audio Broadcast===<br />
Radio, or more broadly the global net of wireless communication, is a huge industry in Konyang. Many IPCs have found harmless additions to their daily lives to be the standard headset and wearable radio kit, permitting any number of fast EAL communication planet-wide streamed directly into their receptors. While not particularly lucrative, the major broadcast stations have made quick work to monopolize their grip over this method of communication. Analog radio has also held a prominent position in people's routine, dating back to early colonial times. Most households maintain an analog radio set able to tune in to Konyang's many different stations that broadcast day and night on a planetary scale. Mariners especially make frequent use of the radio, with talk shows, news, and shipping forecasts keeping them company and up to date along their voyages in the open seas.<br />
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'''Matsumoto’s Talk and Walk'''<br />
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Meant for the on-the-go working IPC, this Encoded Audio Language bluespace broadcast is run by a particularly energetic “Matsumoto.” Though the true nature or even appearance of Matsumoto is unknown, they have constructed a massive following built from IPCs who obsessively strive to uphold their strict, rigid lifestyle. Talk and Walk states clear affiliation with multiple government and corporate organizations, particularly those with Hephaestus Industries. Matsumoto will often promote charitable foundations or corporate products found on Konyang, especially to those tuning in to their tourist-centric broadcast. When speaking in Sol Common, they take on a fast-paced and high-pitched masculine tone. They are frequently put on loudspeakers in popular tourist destinations, with recordings accompanying stylized eyeballs which track passerbys.<br />
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'''Great Blue Dot'''<br />
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Hidden somewhere in the depths of Konyang’s shallow seas is a moving, unseen broadcast station which has gone undetected since its first broadcast in 2430. It is known as the Great Blue Dot, attributed to what researchers believe to be its tremendous size and the color of its marker on sea-charts. While itself illegally broadcasts to every openly-receiving piece of hardware on the southern hemisphere of the planet, little can be gleaned of the actual broadcasts themselves. From incoherent gibberish of “swarms of wasps,” to “hives in the skies,” the outgoing material is poorly formed at best. Receiving these broadcasts is not illegal, contrarily, and the sheer number of watchful eyes bouncing back to the broadcast keeps its location perpetually hidden from local authorities. Search efforts for the source of the Great Blue Dot stopped in May of 2462, due to “excessive cost for little reward,” police officials say.<br />
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====Visual Animation====<br />
[[File:Konyang anime.png|thumb|Seasons 1-14 of BELIEVE!~, one of the flagship animations of Konyang entertainment industry. ]]<br />
Animated media is commonplace on Konyang, and chief among the many outlets that enhance its unique culture. Whereas hundreds, perhaps thousands of animated studios take up projects annually, very few make critical success. By far the most famous and successful studio, Konymation, remains a staple in everyday life, employing thousands throughout the planet in drawing, voicing and animating high budget movies and series of all kinds and genres. The industry, despite computer-aided assistance, heavily leans on IPC labor and organic oversight for its newly-animated creations. This makes it very costly, and few endeavors pay off. Some examples of those that succeeded are below.<br />
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'''Stormman'''<br />
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A very popular series created by Konymation, Stormman has been described as a staple animation by both human and IPC audiences. Aimed primarily at young adults, the action packed franchise features the masked protagonist, Stormman, harnessing the power of Konyang’s stormy and thunderous weather with his high-tech suit, battling crime and apocalyptic alien invaders alike, all while trying to lead a normal life. Eight seasons have been released so far, whereas merchandise of all sorts are widely prominent as well as lucrative. <br />
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'''Believe!~ (In the Time)'''<br />
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A hit animated series renowned for its choppy, quick action sequences led by a stoic heroine by the name of '''Marie,''' a time traveling Venusian shell IPC from the 2460’s. Targeted primarily at IPC audiences, it takes place in the pre-war “wild west” Frontier at around the early warp era. Being released in 2435, it has claimed fame as a “hit 30’s classic,” still being aired on prime broadcast stations globally in subtitled Sol Common. To organic viewers, much of the dialogue, tones or consistency is said to be lost in a muddle of incomprehensibly fast shoot-out scenes and plot twists that happen for split-seconds.<br />
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====Comics====<br />
Spearheaded by Mujigae Publishing, the planet's comic sector has seen great successes that brought paper back into the mainstream. Comic books have a huge share of the market on Konyang, and is perhaps the largest industry of its kind to exist in any civilized world in the Orion Spur. Comic genres vary from children-oriented adventures, to gritty, graphic murder mysteries for adults, all of which may incorporate elements of fantasy and superheroes. Movie and animation adaptations of Mujigae's comics are also a common practice used to boost numbers, making readers able to see their favourite stories and characters on the big screen.<br />
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'''Inspector 404/Kyung-Sun'''<br />
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[[File:Konyang comic.png|thumb|The front cover for the latest edition of I404, "Under the Shadows," featuring Kyung-Sun with superintendent Hayashi in the background.]]<br />
Since its debut in the issue ''“Phantoms of Suwon,”'' the series simply referred to as I404 is the most popular comic in the Orion Spur, and Konyang’s most profitable media franchise. The series centers around the titular '''Inspector 404,''' a shell IPC who goes by the alias of Kyung-Sun, in a bleak and highly dystopian Konyanger cityscape. While the series itself starts upon a Suwon highrise, the character would go on to travel the world in its 67 current issues. Issue #67, known as “Under the Shadows,” revolves around the Kyung-Sun going up against the same police establishment he had been serving, pitting himself against corrupt police superintendent Hayashi.<br />
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'''The Corrupted'''<br />
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Manga, detective thriller about a National Police officer and his shell co-investigator. Grittier than Inspector 404, it centers around the discovery of a Trinary Perfection/Benevolent Guild conspiracy to infect citizens and overthrow the government, turning Konyang into a client state of Orepit. Started in 2464, has become extremely popular since the start of the virus outbreak. Accused by the Trinary Perfection of being baseless slander written by criminals, which they put on an omnibus as an official review.<br />
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==Fashion==<br />
Being as moist as it is, one would expect the average Konyanger outfits to consist of drysuits and reflective outerwear, with raincoats and the like. This is the case in the majority of urban settings, whereas people in the villages take quite their own unique spin on their fashion choices.<br />
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Insulation from water is difficult to come by without some form of thermal insulation coming with it. This is clearly suboptimal, seeing as beating the heat is just as important as staying dry here. In their ingenuity, rural Konyangers have utilized a “miracle weave” of natural fibers acquired from the feathers of much avian wildlife planetside. Replicating the byproducts of these feathers has proven impossible, leaving only hunting to produce the necessities for the weave. Traditional villages take immense pride in their unique attire, many calling it the most important difference between them and the cities. Combining vibrant colours and utility, Konyanger fields are regularly dotted with farmers sporting colourful ponchos, robes and traditional Gat headwear. Most rural Konyanger “fashion” draws from this weave in some form - resulting in cool, waterproof, and sharp-looking outerwear resembling a poncho in most cases. More complex items such as jackets and legwear are quite expensive and marketed as luxury items for the elite, with the weave still in quite high demand.<br />
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Urban fashion on the other hand is rather detached from the realities of that of the villages. The natural, feather based fabrics are rarely found amongst the denizens of the large cities, while those who do own them are quickly singled out as either people from the countryside, or individuals of a higher class. Rainy weather still being the primary issue, city dwellers have adopted a different stance, preferring clothes of industrial origin.<br />
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In combination with normal everyday clothing items, these Konyangers have adopted a heavy use of water resistant plastics. Stemming from the first years of settlement on the planet, plastic and translucent raincoats were slowly shaped into all sorts of jackets, coats and pants, creating a more comfortable and utilitarian approach to keeping clothes dry. Slowly developing into a fashion sense, and with research on more flexible materials, plastic-based attire has culminated into being the norm. LED lights, translucency and water resistance are the staples of this trend, the youth and clothes designers taking it a step further, with holographic microprojectors being woven and fluorescent substances infused into the material, creating quite the cutting edge in fashion.<br />
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{{Navbox Konyang}}</div>The Strykerhttps://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=Konyang&diff=32020Konyang2024-02-21T14:33:59Z<p>The Stryker: </p>
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==Overview==<br />
Originally established in 2305 as a Solarian Alliance Outer Ring planet, Konyang is presently one of the more distant outposts under the Coalition of Colonies after its independence in '''2462'''. Konyang’s capital city Suwon, the largest settlement on the planet, is built upon a natural formation that defines most of Konyang's geography: islands with large interior mountains that feature lush, but soaking wet, coastal jungle regions. Konyang was initially a relatively average Outer Ring settlement intended to export water, before the discovery of mysterious, deactivated drones in 2407 led to a robotics boom occuring on the planet that lasted well into the 2450s. The Konyang of today is a planet renowned for its robotics industry, though some of its initial luster has faded in the years following its boom. Water, however, remains a key industry - the planet has a remarkably low salination level, meaning that essentially all of its water is drinkable. Konyang Solarian Common, or Konyang Common, is the most used language on the planet inside and outside of major population centers. Due to its proximity to the Coalition of Colonies planets, Coalition member planets often import water from Konyang. In major cities and universities, Tradeband can be found being spoken, though it remains rare. Speakers of the language are generally from off-planet, moving to Konyang during its robotics boom. Konyang almost completely lacks valuable minerals due to intensive mining efforts carried out by drones—whose source remains unknown—hundreds of years before it was colonized.<br />
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'''Because of the ethnic make-up of Konyang's original settlers and assimilation of immigrants into the native population during the first AI boom, human characters born on Konyang will have names and appearances consistent with the people of China, the Korean Peninsula, and Japanese Islands. Only native Konyangers or Konyang-made IPCs may select the Konyanger accent. This is enforceable by server moderators and admins.'''<br />
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[[File:Konyang flag.png| The Konyanger flag was adopted in 2462, having unofficially been used by pro-autonomy circles long before the declaration of independence. The traditional taitju represents peace and harmony as the highest values of the new state, with the color blue representing the waterways the planet is known for and yellow, their aim of prosperity. The white background represents Konyang's purity.<br />
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==History==<br />
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===Conception and Planning | 2200s - 2299===<br />
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When the United Nations proposed and eventually enforced the creation of the Alliance of Sovereign Solarian Nations, China, Korea and Japan were once more forced to band together to compete with the world for influence inside the newly found institution. Rivals such as the European Union, the Soviet Union, the Commonwealth and the United States were first in line to claim hegemonic roles, their space programs forming the core of Solarian colonization of the Inner, Middle and Outer rings over the centuries, populating them with their own peoples and sparking an unofficial race for prestige land grabs, one which the Department of Colonization was more than happy to let unfold, resulting in the extremely fast expansion of Humanity into the Orion Spur. While regional powers such as India and the Mediterranean countries began creating their own colonies on Gadpathur and Assunzione, the East Asian trio were relegated to secondary roles of supplying technology, labor and capital without any actual representation in the stars, a situation problematic for some and resented by many in the “sovereign” governments.<br />
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It was thus decided to present a plan to Solarian functionaries for a colony spearheaded by China and supported heavily by Korea and Japan, aimed at restoring the pride of the three “cousin-nations” and their position in the Alliance. Intense negotiations and technical planning amounted to years of disagreements over the name, location and allocation of responsibilities between the partners, as well as the presence of China’s Einstein Engines megacorporation, which offered to finance a great portion of the initial effort. Soon however, the advent of the Second Great Depression and the following Interstellar War in the mid-late 2200’s saw a bankrupt Alliance put a halt to any colonization projects, resulting in the plans being shelved. The war took a great toll on the core Solarian worlds, including Earth and its nations which were called to provide manpower, funds and materiel for the Solarian Navy. Federal China’s economy tanked completely under the pressure, relying on IMF bailouts and stays of payment on the salaries of its public sector, with pensionaries and students being most severely hit, resulting in massive social upheaval which would have long lasting consequences for the country’s financial hegemony in the post-war region.<br />
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As peace and relative stability returned, the Alliance found a newly independent, sizable and embittered Coalition of Colonies rival its claims in the Galactic East, calling for the presence of military garrisons and naval stations to protect the border. It was at this time that colonization projects were beginning to reemerge, with the Pacific Pact racing once more to submit a viable plan for a colony that would represent East Asia. A fatigued China could no longer bear the incredible costs it aspired to as the leader of the colonial venture before the war, giving significant leeway to the other two partners and largely retreating behind its megacorporation, Einstein Engines, which was still willing to back the endeavor. An aggressive Korean delegation largely dictated terms, giving birth to the “Konyang Project”, named after the Konyang University in which the colonial undertaking was revealed and presented to the public in 2299.<br />
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===Early Colonial Period | 2304 - 2400s===<br />
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[[File:solyang_flag.png|thumb|right|The flag of Konyang under Alliance administration.]]<br />
The plan envisioned five convoys for the establishment of four primary settlements on a strategically placed planet selected by the Solarian Navy for the support of local naval operations against any threats from the Frontier Alliance. The targeted planet was revealed to be a lush world first discovered in 2278 by a long-range scouting probe, dominated by water and possessing a breathable atmosphere, placing it in a prime position to sustain Human civilization. The quickly named “Haneunim” solar system possessed a few more bodies of secondary importance, and the first convoy was scheduled to launch on the 10th of March 2304, from the Wenchang spaceport in South China, to meet the long-distance freighters in orbit of Luna that would carry the first 5,000 colonists to Konyang. The ethnic mix-up of the colonists were equally distributed amongst the three nationalities, with all being volunteers and 646 of them under the employ of Einstein Engines.<br />
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It took the warp-propelled convoy one year to reach its destination, traversing light years of Solarian vastness before meeting the Navy squadron which would escort them to the planet, with touchdown being made on September 8th, 2305. Konyang was covered in jungles and great mountain ranges, requiring great labor from the men and women of the expedition to create the first settlement, under the direction of officers from the Department of Colonization. Two months later, Unity Station would receive the first signal passed along by the Navy, originating from beacon Number 22890/223, Designation ‘SUWON’. The foundations had been laid. In the following decades, all five convoys would come to form the basis of the “Konyang Territory”, a colony directly controlled by the Alliance and the Solarian Navy as the base of the 58th Fleet. Boosted by its status as a naval base, the abundance of freshwater and with the backing of Einstein, all three cities were realized; Suwon and Boryeong, New Hong Kong, and Aoyama, each at the start holding ethnic majorities of Koreans, Chinese and Japanese respectively.<br />
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===The Robotics Boom | 2407 - 2430s===<br />
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Despite the acceptable climate and near unlimited freshwater, the colonial government soon realized an alarming lack of mineral resources, forcing a complete reliance on external trade and supplies from the Navy for any and all industrial goods and even basic construction materials, a reality which had to be corrected as fast as possible. A planet-wide scanning expedition was organized, while “patriotic aid” was fervently being fundraised in China, Japan and Korea for nearly a whole century to cope with the colonists' increasing demands. This led to a landmark moment in the history of Konyang, when on the 21st of April 2404, mining teams dug into a collapsed tunnel outside the vicinity of Aoyama, discovering a defunct mining drone, crushed by tonnes of rock and soil. The chassis appeared broken and old, though its very presence implied the exploitation of the planet by a different civilization.<br />
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The device was hurried back in secrecy to a panel of dumbfounded colonial officials, who deemed that their corporate partners would be more suited in tracking down its origin. As such, after a quick formality bid behind closed doors, the Alliance sold off its odd piece of government property to Einstein Engines whose scientists saw it as a curious case worth pursuing. Month after month, the Terraneus Diagnostics laboratory in Aoyama kept receiving bits and pieces from similar drones recovered from abandoned, centuries-old mineshafts, culminating in the 2406 discovery of a sealed vault containing a great number of intact mining drones. The severity of this discovery was immediately apparent to the scientists. Words were had with the governor of Konyang by the local Einstein Engines representative, and it was decided to keep the drones a very closely-guarded secret - with only select Terraneus and government officials even being aware of their existence at all, let alone what was being done with them.<br />
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The Terraneus research team worked feverishly, though in secret, for months upon months. Staff were quietly shipped in from offworld in order to not alert outside observers, and the team continued to work upwards of eighty hour weeks in order to crack the drones. In mid-2407, they achieved one of the most remarkable breakthroughs in recent scientific memory by cracking the AI algorithms of the drones. Information of this moved rapidly from the local Einstein Engines office up the corporate chain and moved equally rapidly up the government's chain from provincial office to Sol itself. The information spread like wildfire, and humanity now had the secret of AI despite not truly knowing from where or who these machines came from. This was little more than a footnote to the Nralakk Federation - to them, these AI were crude and hardly approached the machines that had driven their civilization to ruin.<br />
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The robotics boom of Konyang caused a variety of benefits and harms to the previously marginal outer ring planet. The economy ballooned massively, as did its standard of living and industries. Konyang moved from a rural backwater that exported food and water to a high-tech planet that still exported basic goods, but primarily focused upon robotics. Megacorporations flocked to the planet: Einstein Engines, already present through Terraneus, rapidly secured dominance over the planet; Hephaestus Industries struggled with Einstein dominated competition before selling its factories over to local government control in 2427; and Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals, despite its skrell benefactors, purchased rights to examine the planet's biosphere from Einstein. The fact that their prosthetic limbs were originally designed on this planet has been stated to be a "happy coincidence" by its board. Due to the mass arrival of corporations, jobs were readily available - the planet was booming.<br />
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A massive migration wave of Einstein employees and their families to Aoyama made the city wrangle the spot of first in importance from the nominal capital of Suwon, to the point where the expatriate scientific community and their dependents outnumbered the local Japanese original colonists. The city quickly became known to Humanity as “Point Verdant”, the name assigned to the Terraneus Diagnostics laboratory in Aoyama, while the parent countries on Earth invested billions to capitalize on the success of their colonial project, to lift the planet into a modern world and reap the public relations benefits of their colony achieving a breakthrough in artificial intelligence.<br />
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The rapid expansion of Konyang's industries and cities had overtaxed the limited bureaucracy on the planet to the breaking point, and architects were in short supply. Urban planning on Konyang is estimated to be some of the worst in Alliance space outside of New Hai Phong as a result, with cities such as Point Verdant often having haphazard roads running through them and districts smashed together with no apparent rhyme or reason - a legacy of corporate jockeying for areas of interest, and the municipal corruption that came with it. There are countryside facilities originally utilized for drone research and retrieval that have, in recent years, fallen into disuse and disarray. Such facilities often dot the mountains and foothills of Konyang, slowly being overtaken by nature - sometimes with unfortunate results when these facilities have been improperly stripped of dangerous materials. The environment also suffered in areas where drones were found - jungles were cut or burnt away by corporations in order to get at the precious drones below, prefab buildings were orbitally dropped and erected, and landing zones were cut into the landscape itself.<br />
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The stormy tidal waves so infamous for tormenting the early colonists were tamed through the building of sea walls, a comprehensive road network linked the remote villages with the urban centers, and the city of Ganzaodeng was raised from the rocky desert. The Konyanger conglomerate PACHROM would mark the rise of the first native Chaebols, building shipyards, dams, hydroelectric plants and the first space fleet capable of ferrying enormous capacities of water across interstellar systems.<br />
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===The Positronic Integration | 2410s===<br />
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Soon enough, IPCs entered production on the planet, making Konyang one of the first places to embrace the positronic revolution. The limited resources saw higher prices, lessening the availability of domestically produced frames. Furthermore, the still rudimentary waterproofing technologies meant that IPCs could not work for long hours without shelter, ensuring that human jobs would remain safe from automation. When in the rest of Sol IPCs were produced en-masse for labor, Konyanger IPCs were more integrated in white-collar employment and indoors service-related work. Meanwhile, a growing media culture based on animation combined with the Konyanger recycle-friendly attitude, giving newer generations a fresh look on positronic intelligence, one that valued them as people rather than a disposable resource. The lack of widespread automation never brought the anti-synthetic sentiment so common in the rest of Sol, and IPCs in time became a unique cultural phenomenon in the colony’s urban centers.<br />
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Solarian laws governing the relations between IPCs and mankind were nominally enforced on Konyang, barring synthetics from gaining their own freedom, a fact which remained a thorn between the more liberal, younger Konyangers and the older generations. Einstein Engines allied with the Solarian governorship to press for the continuing status of Konyang as a colony, preventing elections and thus any liberal political influence from threatening the company’s grip on its synthetic workforce. This however, did not prevent Konyanger society to further integrate IPCs, even if the concept of universal citizenship for all synthetics was still far from publicly accepted. Aoyama was most receptive to the positronics, as a center of research and culture, with IPCs welcomed in people’s houses, treated like family and celebrated in festivals and even religious ceremonies. Suwon sentiment remained ambivalent, though many Solarian officials and naval officers expressed most severe concerns, in many cases pressing for crackdowns and questioning the morals of Konyanger citizens. The denizens of New Hong Kong and Ganzaodeng on the other hand, were most unhappy, with the powerful Chinese factory and shipyard labor unions remaining vocally opposed to IPC rights in the workplace, owing to their ties with the wider Solarian unions.<br />
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The profound effects of the emergence of this positronic culture were soon felt across the planet, change being heralded through a wave of demonstrations in mid to late 2412. High school and university students in Aoyama took to the streets to call for synthetic rights, in one of the few instances of pro-IPC disturbances on Solarian soil. In particular, the students called for the immediate emancipation of owned synthetics, marching from the main First Avenue down to the Governor's House and being joined by crowds of people and IPCs alike. The Aoyama Constabulary alongside Terraneus security forces were ordered to put a swift end to the march, resulting in the first major incident since the founding of the colony. Over 400 student injuries were recorded, the crowds responding with rocks and branches to the authorities’ tear gas and water cannons. 247 arrests were made that day, sparking additional outrage in the student movement as the ringleaders were tried as adults and given lengthy prison sentences. Smaller incidents were also noted in Suwon and Boryeong, marking 2412 as a year of upheaval and social change, laying the foundations for full IPC citizenship.<br />
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===Late Colonial Period | 2410s - 2440s===<br />
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As Konyang left behind the troubled ’10s and social peace returned through decrees permitting local city authorities to afford certain permissions for IPCs. This followed the final robotics' boom peak in the 2430s, seeing the planet’s GDP growth reach new levels. The colony’s industrial potential skyrocketed, with hundreds of hydroelectric dams, sea walls and shipyards creating thousands of new jobs in New Hong Kong, the new industrial core of Konyang. Labour relations shifted dramatically, as the new Hephaestus-pioneered industrial chassis enabled IPCs to work in the most difficult of conditions, sidelining and driving off the all powerful Gwongfu labor unions, with human employees forced into the urban centers and Ganzaodeng, contributing to a skyrocketing of the local IPC population in the prefecture.<br />
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Suwon saw a significant rise in business activity with the outside world, emboldening private ventures to the neighboring Frontier Alliance, bringing in massive profits from moss and entertainment exports. The animation industry reached new heights, with hundreds of new studios producing pioneering and high quality work, including classics like “One Day in My Life” and “Tomonomimi”, two of the most highly acclaimed works of media in recent Solarian memory. The entertainment sector brought new life to the Konyanger tourism industry as well, with more and more people rediscovering the distant hidden gem tucked deep in the fringes of the Alliance. The Suwon Stock Exchange was listed for the first time in the Chicago Financial Review, Sol’s most coveted investment periodical, as “Upcoming”, leading to billions of credits flowing in the country from abroad.<br />
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New chaebol conglomerates emerged, replacing even Einstein products with widely successful “Local, Cheaper and Better” campaigns. While Gwok Foods was making headlines in 2439 as the most successful Konyanger “IPC-inspired” exporter by yearly gross tonnage, the Ayame Motor Corporation created the first “completely Konyanger” 2-seat automobile designed for the cramped roads of Suwon and Point Verdant, becoming an instant hit. The Boryeong based Mujigae Publishing brought comics back into the youth’s hands, and Konymation had expanded to control cinemas, movie production studios, theme parks and restaurant chains in its ever expanding media empire.<br />
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===Independence and Present Day | 2462 - Present===<br />
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The Mars Violet Dawn catastrophe of 2462 signaled an era of widespread uncertainty and energy insecurity for the entirety of the Sol Alliance, with the Spur-wide phoron crisis exacerbating the situation for the Alliance’s Middle and especially Outer Ring colonies. A Konyanger recession in the late 2450s had already stretched the colonial government thin, with riots over the cost of living and unemployment in New Hong Kong and Suwon making national news for years on end. As the shaken corporations entered discussions on how they would survive the ever increasing phoron costs, it was made clear to everyone that the Alliance could not, and would not fund the refitting of the corporate fleets with the new Suzuki-Zhang Hammer Drive engine, threatening the complete cutoff of Konyang from outer space should the local Bluespace gate fail. Only a few Einstein vessels and the 58th Fleet stationed on the planet remained as the only reliable link between Konyang and the Spur.<br />
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The shortage soon hit the domestic market, leading to dangerous price increases for even the most essential of supplies. The average Konyanger saw their purchasing power plummet, as salaries remained stagnant in the face of a decreasing supply. The colonial Governor Hyun Kyung-Ho, turned to the only emergency option left, Earth. It was not the first time that Patriotic Aid was raised in China, Korea and Japan, though this time it proved most underwhelming. As the call for help fell on ears of men that could not even help their own economies, the trophy colony had to be abandoned to its own devices, with many in the East Asian public accusing Konyangers of greed and forgetting them in their apogee of financial success. With this last link to the past cut off, the question and possibility of independence soon started circling.<br />
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There was no time for serious debate however, with the Alliance being plunged into rebellion and collapse. On November 12, the 58th Fleet hastily departed Konyang, declaring a state of emergency in the system and abandoning the colonial government to its fate. Only elements of the Solarian Army and the Constabularies remained to maintain order, themselves being composed almost entirely of local Konyanger enlisted. The situation immediately turned into unrest, as public sentiment against the ineptitude of the Alliance boiled over into the streets. Massive student protests saw the storming of public buildings and central plazas in every major town and city, demanding a sharp reduction to the cost of living, IPC emancipation and a barring of the 58th Fleet from returning. Government reaction was mild, limited to the prevention of damages and protection of private property. Hyun Kyung-Ho was otherwise sympathetic to the students’ cause, sparking outrage within groups of Alliance-minded Army officers and Einstein corporate elites, who sought to prevent any secession of Konyang.<br />
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Thus, on November 15 2462, elements of the Army garrison under Lieutenant General Jiang Hongbing mobilized against the wishes of the Governor, taking up key positions in Suwon and Point Verdant. The mutinous 8th Sappers infiltrated the historic SUWON beacon telecommunications complex, preparing the country for a silent coup and preventing any long range communications with Sol. Jiang Hongbing, inspired by actions of mutinous admirals, took it upon himself to restore Konyang to the Alliance by marching the Army into the streets. While some of the formations under his command were willing to participate, the vast majority refused to bear arms against the Konyanger Governor or the student movements. In the following day, an internal power struggle saw many officers confined to their quarters, with Army hardliners being arrested, chased off or even assaulted in their own barracks as a loyalist armored brigade blocked access to the Governor’s House, preventing Hongbing’s men from touching Hyun Kyung-Ho.<br />
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With the coup’s inglorious end visible, the Governor’s staff were racing into negotiations with diplomatic officers from Coalition of Colonies still in the country for an express accession into the Coalition, following Konyang’s independence. Jiang Hongbing’s associates surrendered, himself fleeing into the thick jungles of Boryeong Prefecture, declaring a patriotic struggle in the Alliance’s name before soon being betrayed and confined at the 58th base’s Brig. On November 24 2462, telecommunications were restored, and Konyanger independence was broadcast to the world. The country’s preliminary accession into the Coalition was soon after announced, turning a new leaf in Konyang’s history. While the news was received with muted reaction from a confused Alliance government with more pressing matters to handle, the secession of Konyang was a huge blow to the three parent countries. After Governor Hyun Kyung-Ho assembled the nation’s intellectuals, economic and political figures, it was decided that he would remain in place as independent Konyang’s first Governor to organize free elections and set up the foundations for a democratic state.<br />
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Now, as a free Konyang comes out to the world stage, strong government initiative has seen its large synthetic factories nationalized, rapidly introducing legislation to establish the relationship with Einstein Engines. While they still are the dominating megacorporation on the planet, Einstein has lost most of its heavy industry, though still retaining the important research facilities around the vaults, as well as a good portion of software and positronic brain creation.<br />
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==Location and Environment==<br />
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===The Haneunim System===<br />
The Haneunim System, centered around the yellow star it is named for, Haneunim, contains four major celestial bodies, including the planet of Konyang. The whole system bears evidence of ancient mining operations, missing an asteroid belt to separate the inner and outer system with what few rocks remain being mostly picked clean of minerals. The innermost planet is known as Huozhu and remains practically inaccessible due to the scorching heat of Haneunim. Following it is Hwanung , an insignificant dwarf planet believed to have maintained a thin arid atmosphere before most of its mass was artificially stripped away. The third planet in the System is Konyang, accompanied by its lifeless moon of Qixi. Shiranui, a blue gas giant with a ring, is the outermost planet from Haneunim. An asteroid belt, far to the outskirts and composed mostly of ice, forms a ring around the entire system, although this remains largely unexploited by both the Konyanger government and local corporations. It is instead the stomping ground of both refugees fleeing the Sol Wildlands, and the pirates that seek to prey on them.<br />
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===Geography===<br />
[[File:Konyang_map_sat.png|A geographic map of Konyang, showcasing the planet's different biomes. |thumb|800px]]<br />
Primarily a tropical world smaller than Earth, Konyang boasts a mean radius of 5,111 kilometers. Freshwater oceans cover upwards of 88% of the planet’s surface. These oceans also grant Konyang its signature green color when viewed from orbit, in no small part thanks to the abundant presence of moss in the planet’s waterways. The planet’s continents are classified by its larger landmasses and island chains, although given the tides, the planet remains studded with small island chains and archipelagos that ebb and flow with the season. Two small ice caps exist on Konyang where the planet experiences a miniscule amount of snowfall and cold climates. The Konyanger terrain is principally mountainous, with large ranges covering vast areas of the planet’s landmasses. The tallest peak belongs to Mount Sansin, the highest mountain standing at a record 13.890 meters above sea level, its base forming an island of its own. Flanking the mountains are usually lush jungles, present in almost every island and continent in varying densities. This means that settlements have to be located in clearings adjacent to the coastline, on terrain with relatively even elevation. The largest and most dense jungle is located in Bukupo, an island in the heart of the Boryeong Prefecture. The largest landmass on the planet is Cheomseongtang, home of the Suwon prefecture and the nation’s capital. Other notable landmasses are the Oshima islands, hosting the largest mountain ranges, as well as the Yu islands, home of the only biome that could be described as a desert. New Hokkaido is the largest northernmost territory, renowned for its biodiversity and frosty tundra due to its proximity to the planet’s pole, as well as a unique lack of jungles. It is administered directly by the Government of Konyang, being the site of many scientific expeditions and military exercises, only boasting a population of a few hundred people.<br />
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===Environment===<br />
[[File:Konyang.png|An image of Konyang, displaying mossy oceans and algae-covered water as the face of the planet. |thumb]]<br />
Konyang features a highly atypical environment for a habitable planet: it is entirely freshwater. The surface of the planet is primarily oceans, with estimates placing upwards of 88% of the planet as covered in water. What is not under the sea are the islands of Konyang, where the vast majority of its population lives. These islands follow a general pattern: a small coastal area and a large mountain range ringing the island. The freshwater oceans of Konyang feature a remarkable diverse biosphere, and Konyang underwater flora, such as freshwater moss, is often used in the planet's native dishes and exported offworld, as far afield as Sol and Tau Ceti. Konyang is defined by two seasons: wet, lasting nine months, and dry, lasting three months.<br />
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The coastal regions of Konyang represent the smallest regions of its islands, but contain upwards of 90% of the planet's population. Often called the "coastal jungles" of Konyang, these areas are extremely wet - flooding is an issue in many areas, though the bulk of populated and urban areas are protected by extensive flood protection infrastructure, primarily lengthy complexes of walls. Coastal areas feature a wealth of plant and animal life, both of which have been put under stress by the rapid expansion of Konyang's cities.<br />
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Although Konyang’s coastal waters are often tinted green from moss, even more so than its oceans, harvesting and cleanup efforts along the coasts of the main and important islands have resulted in some sections of the planet appearing blue. These areas are often exploited for settlements and as tourist destinations for their scenic looks, while dedicated seaweed and algae farms dot the planet, providing an income for local villages and traditional producers. The most famous Konyanger food exporter, Go-Go Gwok!, has the largest involvement in the moss and seaweed industry.<br />
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The inland mountain ranges of Konyang can be up to several kilometers in height in some areas, with smaller foothills featuring some rare settlements leading up to them. These ranges, which lack valuable minerals completely due to Glorsh-era mining, are the reason for Konyang's jungles - they form an effective rain shadow. Some mountains have what is assumed to be collapsed mines in them, deactivated drones scattered throughout.<br />
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A phenomenon unique to the easternmost Yu islands of the Ganzaodeng prefecture, inland deserts are created due to the rain shadow caused by the surrounding mountain ranges. These are the least populated areas of the planet. Extraordinarily dry, little grows or lives in these environments. Rare Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals facilities can be found in this area, taking advantage of the isolation and relatively sterile environment that the inland deserts offer.<br />
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Lastly, the oceans of Konyang are regularly stormy, the large waves being harnessed for their energy in electricity production at numerous such outposts, scattered throughout the unpopulated islets in the farthest and most secluded areas.<br />
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===Flora and Fauna===<br />
Wildlife on Konyang is a peculiar mix of its original environment and the thousands of invasive species introduced by Human colonization. Species introduced in the initial colonization of the planet include huge herbivores and peaceful, if ecologically destructive, wildlife. Additionally, the large oceans are host to an uncountable number of species of fish, crustaceans and aquatic molluscs, with many being unique to their region of origin. Flora on Konyang is among its most famed aspects, spearheaded by the mossy shores and overgrowth which covers the vast majority of its visible terrain. All plant life which survives on Konyang must survive the extremely damp environment, and as such either thrives in the water, or is capable of moving away from it. Konyang's waters are famously covered in green moss and seaweed, giving it its signature color when viewed from orbit.<br />
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Some examples of unique flora and fauna are:<br />
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'''Shelfers'''<br />
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In the marsh and lowlands of Konyang's algae coasts resides an invasive species of large omnivores known as '''Shelfers.''' These are gluttonous moss-feasting beasts, with a distinct six-legged and bloated appearance. They are excellent swimmers, owed to webbed joints and a wedge shaped, slick head. From this, it uses a set of large protruding teeth to scrape moss and undersea growths. This creature is endangered, and displayed as a national animal thanks to its unique appearance. Originally a danger to unprepared colonization, these gained a reputation for its tendency to attack colonists.<br />
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These were first encountered by colonists who had shipped wildlife to and from Arusha, where escaped subjects managed to reproduce- over the years becoming a cultural icon due to their miraculous beneficial place they have in Konyang's ecosystem.<br />
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'''Konyanger Jeweler Cockatoo'''<br />
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Known for its affinity to decorate its nesting grounds with surface-level pearls and gems of all sorts is an opportunistic carnivore, the '''Jeweler Cockatoo.''' This large avian is an offshoot of the Earth parrot, bred originally to “liven the landscape” of Konyang’s dreary inner mountainous lands. Eventually, with the assistance of high-level genetic modification, they grew to giant proportions whilst maintaining the health and lifestyle of a standard - ''if highly dangerous'' - parrot. <br />
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Where small patches of forest and barrens clash, these birds thrive and craft beautiful roosts in the relative safety of open fields. In these fields, diminutive predators avoid the large avian’s glare (or don’t, and are frequently preyed upon.) The Jeweler Cockatoo possesses two sharp talons on one digit of each of its feet, and a short - but unbelievably sharp beak, refined further by its tendency to dig. The wingspan of these birds can grow up to fifteen feet.<br />
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The Jeweler Cockatoo is the national bird of Konyang, with many stylized imagery depicting the bird in some shape or form.<br />
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'''Glittering Konyang Moss'''<br />
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Found in vast plains of coastal territories in excess is the overflowing, yet precious resource of '''Konyang moss.''' One of its primary exports, this barely-tapped commodity retains a huge capacity to feed Konyang’s already sturdy ecosystem, and the billions which reside upon it, and more to export. The evolutionary process which grew this mystical, shimmering moss is a mystery, however its luster and fields of green it generates has a wonderful impact on sustaining Konyang’s moist, overgrown and greenery-rich habitat. <br />
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Konyang moss is pivotal to its moving industries, and even after the robotics boom, it remains a stable source of incoming development for the since-burgeoning planet. The moss’ nutritional properties have been highly studied in recent decades. Its rapid pace of growth is exclusive to Konyang’s ecological circumstances, with everything from subterranean heat, to the algae present in its beautiful green seas factoring in.<br />
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==Economy==<br />
While young, the nation of Konyang boasts a powerful regional economy built upon decades of trade with both the Alliance and various Coalition partners. A developed country, Konyang manages to surpass its near total lack of ore with robust exports of foodstuff and energy, a strong shipping industry and a powerful robotics sector.<br />
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===Raw Materials===<br />
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[[File:Konyang dam.png|thumb|Dams and sea walls are a common sight on Konyang, used to protect cities and population centres from floods and tsunamis, as well as to exploit the violent waves for electricity.]]<br />
Konyang's freshwater oceans were perhaps the largest boon to the starting colonists, and continues to play a substantial role behind the planet's exports. Fishing provides for a large aspect of the domestic economy, with millions of fishing boats and trawlers scouring the shores and oceans for all kinds of fish, crustaceans and other aquatic creatures, of which a complete list doesn't exist. Such is the biodiversity in Konyang's waters, that each region has its own fish markets which serve clients all over the planet and the Spur. Besides fishing, Konyang's biggest aquatic produce in terms of volume belongs to its enormous seaweed and moss harvesting industries. Entire ships are purpose-built for collecting wild greenery which floats on the high seas and the bays of Konyang, bringing in billions in offworld exports and domestic sales. The harvesting of moss is not exclusive to the sea and the aquatic farms either, as many edible varieties are collected inland, both in the planet's jungles and mountain ranges. Konyanger moss is Spur-renowned thanks to powerful marketing campaigns and the spread of the planet's cuisine.<br />
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With tremendously stormy wet seasons lasting most of the year, it is no surprise that Konyanger corporations have attempted and managed to harness the energy of the wind, waves and waters of the planet. Electricity is generated through a network of dams, hydroelectric plants, wave power stations and tidal power stations, all dotted across the vast shores and oceans of Konyang. The electricity produced is then either stored in super capacitors, or is directly wired inland through thick underwater cables, catering to the needs of virtually every power grid on the globe. Much of it is also transported on board space freighters lined with rows of large batteries, ready to make the journey to Alliance and Coalition worlds as part of the lucrative electricity export industry.<br />
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Lastly, Konyang excells in the export of water and timber. The continent-spanning untouched jungles provide an excellent source of wood for foreign markets as well as domestic construction, of which there is very heavy use in lieu of metal structures. The freshwater is also extremely easy to chemically filter, skipping any desalination process before being bottled or shipped as-is on board of one of many of Konyang's water barges; large hollow space vessels with tankers and pools for water storage.<br />
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===Maritime Shipping===<br />
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Surface shipping is another one of the main forces behind Konyang's domestic market economy, and an inseparable part of the nation's maritime culture. The docks and shipyards of New Hong Kong are the beating heart of the sector, which provides employment to more than 20% of the entire planet's population. Entire towns were formed and dedicated to housing the laborers and their families close to the coast, and many islands subsist entirely off of seamen's salaries and work at nearby electricity stations. Surface shipping, while slower, is a lot more economical for planetary moving of goods across the continents and islands of Konyang, being preferred to airlifting or orbital shuttling. Aside from the creation of jobs and the transportation of goods, Konyang's shipping industry produces excellent sailors who can rival those of planets such as Europa, many of whom eventually transition to space.<br />
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===Robotics and Services===<br />
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Ever since the robotics boom, Konyang has become a major player in the export and development of IPCs and everything surrounding them. Each year, the most cutting edge technologies catered to the improvement of the life of synthetics are released by Konyanger software companies, often to critical acclaim. This is because of the the substantial positronic population, free and eager to spend on such innovations that allow them to experience the world in a more human-like fashion. When it comes to the export of IPCs, Einstein Engines remains the prime manufacturer of chassis and positronic brains, which are shipped abroad without being activated. The practice, while putting Konyang on the map as one of the big regional producers of synthetics, is a hotly contested area between deeply entrenched corporate interests and an increasingly politically aware IPC populace. Non-positronic robotics are a separate, but once significant part of the economy, with Konyang having hoeld high places in the spur leaderboards for the making of robots, mechs, pAIs and automated systems. This sector however, took a major hit as the robotics boom slowly deflated, leaving behind abandoned industrial complexes and derelict factories.<br />
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The nation's service sector has to be one of the biggest ones, contributing a sizeable portion of the country's Gross Domestic Product. Many of the companies listed on the Suwon Stock Exchange are everything from financial consultation firms, to insurance agencies, housed in every majpr city's financial district. Skyscrapers and office complexes in downtown Suwon, Point Verdant and New Hong Kong are a daily reminder of the office life millions of Konyangers live, and many parents dream of their child being able to one day find employment in a top law firm or such. While mostly concentrated in the domestic market, many of these companies have expanded their services abroad, building a reputation of Konyanger reliability and impeccable work.<br />
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===Konyanger Corporations===<br />
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In terms of the traditional megacorporations, the undoubted hegemon remains Einstein Engines, entrenched in the planet's life since the beginning of Konyang's colonization. The megacorporation owns a number of subsidiaries on the planet in many different sectors, most notably, Terraneus Diagnostics, which regularly bankrolls and invests in government initiatives in exchange for their continuous presence. It retains the original research facilities and control over the vaults, even if IPC production and exports are now handled by the Konyang Robotics Corporation, a public company in which Einstein controls a 49% stake. The Terraneus facilities on the planet mainly handle shell research and positronic brain production for export to the Coalition, while they occasionally butt heads with Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals in the realm of IPC research. Zeng-Hu has the second-largest megacorporate presence, mainly in biosphere research and sales of pharmaceuticals. Despite this, local conglomerates generally dominate the country’s financial sector, commanding the government’s cooperation and good graces in order to keep a stable economy. Upon achieving independence, Konyang has managed to maintain a strong presence of homegrown corporations in the fields of agriculture, media, energy and consumer goods.<br />
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'''PACHROM'''<br />
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A chemical and engineering corporation, PACHROM builds, maintains and manages eighty percent of all private dams, hydroelectric plants and seawalls on Konyang, as well as engaging in the field of chemicals and plastics production. Headed by Park Moon-soo, the business mogul is vying for influence with the government as indispensable to the nation’s energy output and defence against floods and natural disasters, making the “Pachrom Parks” one of the richest and most powerful business dynasties on the planet. Headquartered in central Suwon, the bulk of PACHROM’s operations are located in diasporic, uninhabited islands in the middle of the world’s oceans, where hundreds of organic and synthetic workmen toil daily to run the water powered electricity plants in extremely dangerous conditions.<br />
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The company’s notorious reputation for neglecting the safety of its employees and the environmental disregard for waste disposal from its plastics factories has been a big stain the Parks have struggled to wash off. While their ties to both the Alliance administration and the Konyang government have proven instrumental in their ability to dodge damning legal action, demonstrations of public outcry are a common feature in and around the street opposite the PACHROM office complex. To counter this, public relations campaigns are a constant focus, with tens of millions being spent in portraying them in a positive light. Charities are a large part of the Park family’s social presence, sponsoring public works and offering scholarships mainly in the Boryeong and New Hong Kong prefectures, where the majority of employees originate.<br />
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Often finding itself without funds from Unity Station, the colonial administration would commission PACHROM in the form of lucrative contracts for the construction of dams and power stations, allowing the utilisation of synthetics and IPC for the dangerous labour required. Due to society’s favourable opinion towards positronic intelligence, the multitude of cases of IPC fatalities would be swept under the rug with government assistance, creating a culture of tolerance towards lacklustre safety features and general disregard. Today, PACHROM’s future remains uncertain as the newly independent state of Konyang wishes tends to distance itself from its shaky past, a fact indicated by the recent awarding of the Kaneyama nuclear plant to the public company GON-ENE.<br />
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'''Gwok Group'''<br />
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Founded in the early 2410s with the name Hyeonsang Foods, the precursor to today’s multinational food conglomerate was the first attempt at commercialising Konyang’s seaweed and moss both for export and internal consumption. Initially finding limited success due to an overly competitive local market and foreign consumers' reluctance to the Konyanger novelty, the company's defining moment arrived during the robotics boom, launching them from mediocrity into the billion credit business stage.<br />
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As Einstein Engines staff poured into Point Verdant, Hyeonsang secured a contract from the megacorporation's local branch for providing meals and miscellaneous catering to workers and research staff. The once alienated Einstein employees would soon come around, praising the brand for its flavourful seasoning and convenience, eventually spreading the word to Einstein facilities and back home. By the late 40s, Hyeonsang was on the track of significant financial success, having secured a large foothold in the foreign dominated central districts of Point Verdant.<br />
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Rebranding into the more consumer friendly “Gwok” name in 2452, the company’s reputation abroad led to the opening of regional branches in the Solarian middle and core worlds, generating an increasingly massive amount of income, used for an aggressive takeover of the local Konyanger market. By buying off competitors, monopolising the moss and seaweed industry and introducing new marketing, Gwok’s domestic success was soon guaranteed as the primary supplier of supermarkets. In 2454 the IPC Gwok-0783, until then a senior executive and the face of the company as the main influencer of the rebrand, assumed direct control as CEO of the conglomerate thus becoming the first IPC in charge of a billion credit corporation in Sol space. The following years would see the consolidation of all affiliated assets and filial companies under an umbrella Gwok Group, topping the charts and establishing a farming, food and restaurant chain empire.<br />
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'''Konymation'''<br />
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Konymation represents the peak of the Konyanger animated media scene, being by far the most successful and most well known studio in the country, with a Spur-wide fame. It arose in the early days of the robotics boom, creating a resurgency of animations for both children and adults. While the industry was almost non-existent and cheap Solarian cartoons were the norm, a group of inspired artists came together to animate and direct the first feature-length production from Konyang, using native voice actors and a brand new artstyle of their own. The result was "One Day in my Life", a slice of life film following the daily routine of an IPC secretary in a human-dominated world, becoming an instant hit with both domestic and foreign audiences. Since then, Konymation rose to become the largest studio of quality animations, creating films and series for all ages and of all genres. Such was the success, that any animated pieces from Konyang have passed into the public consciousness simply as "Konymations", referred to as such in both the planet and abroad. Since their foundation, the studio has developed into a media conglomerate, buying out holoscreen channels, online platforms, news networks and more.<br />
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'''Mujigae Publishing'''<br />
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The biggest publishing house, Mujigae is to the comic book industry what Konymation is to animation. Having created thousands of interesting and touching comic series, Mujigae is credited with bringing paper back into the hands of millions of Konyangers, in an age where digital platforms have become the default for nearly everything in life. Many of Mujigae's works find great demand abroad as well as at home, with the company being known for their efforts to constantly seek out and recruit new artists with fresh ideas. A plethora of published series often find themselves being adapted into the holoscreen in lucrative partnerships with Konymation, as well as the other way around. Additionally, Mujigae's philanthropic work cannot go unmentioned; millions of credits have found their way to various charities on Konyang, primarily those regarding the children, the money drawn from art festivals and comicons that are hosted annually, often with the participation of the Ministry of Culture. <br />
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'''Konyang Robotics Corporation'''<br />
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The Konyang Robotics Corporation, or KRC as is more commonly known, is the country's largest government-controlled company centered around the manufacture, maintenance and welfare of the nation's positronic population. Borrowing heavily from Einstein know-how and infrastructure, it originated from the nationalization of Einstein and Terraneus IPC factories, with the majority of their employees swapping over to a government payroll. Einstein Engines controls 49% of the shares of the company, lending it tremendous behind-the-scenes influence on Konyang's synthetic population.<br />
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The primary function of the KRC is the production, storage and activation of IPC citizens. A very politically and socially sensitive topic, great care is placed by the government through the Ministry of Health and Positronic Affairs to meticulously calculate and order the amount of yearly activations, so as to maintain the Human-IPC ratio and meet the demands of the job market. To that effect, the KRC also acts as a sort of "school" for the newly activated IPC citizens, with special orientation camps where synthetics are taught about Konyanger society before released to the world.<br />
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Furthermore, the KRC acts as the primary health provider for Konyanger IPCs, with clinics and hospitals situated in every town and city, as well as strategically placed in certain villages in the countryside. Thousands of roboticists, engineers and software technicians are employed by the KRC to act as the equivalents of surgeons, physicians, nurses and paramedics for the IPC population, who are afforded universal healthcare through the KRC. Appointment times are dependent on location and the capacity of the clinic or hospital, with many in more remote areas having to wait months for limb replacements and other, more heavy duty needs that cannot be met by their local KRC center.<br />
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'''GON-ENE'''<br />
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GON-ENE is a newly formed, state-controlled energy utilities company, created following the announcement of the Kaneyama Nuclear Power Plant. Perceived as a direct competitor to PACHROM, GON-ENE has been planned to expand into hydroelectric and wave power, giving the government a greater control of the nation's power grid and cutting back reliance on privately-owned sector, though complete autarky is off the table for at least many decades.<br />
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==Government==<br />
''Main Article: [[Konyanger Government and Politics#Government|Konyanger Government]]''<br />
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Konyang is organized as a unitary semi-parliamentary republic headed by a President, the former colonial governor Hyun Kyung-Ho being elected to the position after independence. The Prime Minister is elected by the citizenry every four years, and is the leader of the governing party in the Parliament of Konyang. The current Prime Minister is Myeong Myung-Dae.<br />
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Planetary politics are found on both a national and prefectural level, with every party running in local and national elections. Polarization is fairly limited, the vast majority of Konyangers rejecting the extreme views put forward by radical political movements in the country that tend to be marginalized. IPC politicians do exist and are found in every major party, though most can be seen sitting with the National Party of Konyang.<br />
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===Military===<br />
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[[File:Marine.png|thumb|right|An IPC Konyanger Naval Infantryman in full gear.]]<br />
Konyang’s military, also known as the Konyang Armed Forces, was first formed shortly after the colony’s independence from personnel of the former Solarian garrison. As a result, it carries a lot of the traditions of the Solarian Armed Forces. Bolstered by conscription laws requiring both organic and synthetic citizens one year of mandatory service, the KAF possesses Army, Navy and Aerospace branches. IPCs are actively recruited and accepted into the military, forming both their own and deployed in mixed units. This segregation is justified by the government as based solely on the differentiating capabilities, logistical needs and skills between man and machine.<br />
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That claim does hold true to an extent, with IPCs taking a more active role in special forces formations, dealing with operations requiring levels of precision and focus that artificial intelligence can easily provide. A famous example is the army’s Mechatronic Corps, an elite unit utilising large, leftover battle mechs retrofitted for a pair of pilots. Such a force is unique in the Coalition, and is often used abroad in operations under broader CoC military command. Mixed infantry units of conscripts do exist, fielded in jungle patrol tasks or assigned garrison duty.<br />
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Notably for a 25th century military, the Navy maintains a very large aquatic force which it uses to patrol the vast oceans of the planet. Regularly described as more of a coast guard than a military arm, it is more geared for domestic policing than combat, consisting mostly of ships acting as launching points for many smaller, coast guard type vessels that patrol the vast expanse of the planet’s waterways and launch military aircraft. Nevertheless, it provides important services with its multiple telecommunication, radar and island outposts, providing crucial meteorological information for everyday seafaring and flood prevention on a planet where storms and extreme weather are the norm.<br />
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The Konyang Aerospace Forces perform both atmospheric and orbital operations with their doctrine clearly influenced by former Solarian officers within their ranks. Their fleet consist of obsolete vessels donated by Coalition planets, partially brought up to a modern standard by the planet’s technology and manufacturing sector. In 2465, the KASF’s main tasks include protecting the system from pirates and policing the large influx of refugees from the Human Wildlands, regularly pushing them to other planets within the Coalition as per Konyang’s strict migration laws.<br />
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===National Police===<br />
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[[File:Konyanger Police Ranks.png|thumb|In order to organize the National Police and smooth cooperation between prefectures, a unified rank structure was adopted shortly after its formation.]]<br />
Despite its federal nature, the main law enforcement agency on the planet is the National Police, formed after Konyang’s independence from the merging of a number of local and specialised agencies under the then Solarian authority. One major change since then has been the introduction of synthetic officers in all positions and ranks, while also creating special divisions suited best for them. Police gear remains rather antiquated for the era, the force still using old Solarian equipment and stocks from the colonial garrison, meaning that much of the tactics and thinking remain unchanged. Considered tame by Alliance standards, the National Police places an emphasis on preventative policing, building rapport with local communities, and relying on a sense of civic duty from the populace to perform its duties. Despite this, the National Police has nonetheless received criticism for occasional incidents of corruption and brutality, mostly against synthetic citizens. This is more common in remote departments and conservative prefectures, where the sudden inclusiveness of synthetic officers with equal pay and opportunities is seen as a threat. Such incidents aside, government efforts for the modernisation of the National Police are ongoing.<br />
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The police is subject to the Ministry of Public Safety in Suwon and is organised at the national level, with local departments answering to the assigned hierarchy in their prefecture. Special divisions are deployed to deal with various policing duties, their size ranging from a whole new branch to Special Robotics detachments specialising in detainment of volatile synthetic suspects. The largest of these subdivisions and arguably the most important, the Coast Guard is the maritime arm of the National Police, operating a fleet of shore and sea patrol vessels in their mission to enforce the law at the huge array of islands and in Konyang’s waters. As the planet is surrounded by oceans, the Coast Guard has proven itself essential to the battle against smuggling and piracy while also assuming search and rescue duties during flooding, tsunamis and other catastrophes. The National Police has also gained Coalition-wide acclaim for its Special Robotics Division - a task force known for its expertise in detaining IPC without causing permanent damage.<br />
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==Culture==<br />
''Main article: [[Konyanger_Culture_and_Demographics|Konyanger Culture]]''<br />
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Konyang’s culture has been shaped by its East Asian Earther heritage, unique status as a colony with little to no resources, and as the birthplace of positronics. Konyanger society is often described as closed-off, with many unspoken social norms that vary from prefecture to prefecture. Key social norms that are shared in Konyang’s culture are Harmony, Reciprocity, and Face. Often derided as “meekness”, Harmony refers to enforcing unity and conformity within society. The specific manifestations vary from prefecture to prefecture, but in general, individuals who disrupt a sense of peace can face social ostracization. For instance, explicit disagreement such as using the word “no” is considered impolite, and a non-answer is often far more acceptable. Harmony also refers to a person’s social role; respect should be shown to people of a higher status, usually along traditional lines such as age, profession, and experience.<br />
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===Media===<br />
''Main article: [[Konyanger_Culture_and_Demographics#Media|Media]]''<br />
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Public media in Konyang is a powerful industry, and as broad as it may seem, it is very tightly knit. Aside from galactic-wide reruns and broadcasts of other nation’s shows, little seems to stand out - except the audio broadcast and illustrated artistic avenues. These two are well-refined artistic giants compared to other forms of entertainment on the planet.<br />
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A huge portion of the planet’s political views and very “personality” are channeled through its larger studios, where many are found enthused to spread its culture galaxy-wide.<br />
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===Cuisine===<br />
The primary diet of Konyangers consists of moss, seaweed and fish, with farms and pastures on land being rare due to the thick jungle. Konyang's moss is either harvested in the wild, grown in "natural" hydrofarms, or grown synthetically in bioplants. The moss itself is said to change its taste depending on the environment in which it is grown, and natural moss from the coasts around Konyang's islands is highly prized. Exports of moss and seaweed are a very lucrative business, held primarily by the galaxy-famous Go-Go Gwok! brand. Many workers, however, must make do with hydrofarm moss at best, and synthetic substitutes at worst. Konyang's fish - quite diverse, due to its freshwater environments - are also often consumed on the planet, with many being exported as luxury food as far afield as Venus and Tau Ceti. More conventional but water-intensive crops such as rice and other tropical fruits are also grown to a certain extent but are considered a rarity.<br />
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The planet is also home to a thriving beverages industry, with local varieties of algae providing the basis of a light but thick alcoholic drink colloquially known as “Nong jiu” domestically and abroad. The wide selection of produce on the planet however means more traditional drinks are produced, typically drawing from their Earther roots and commonly based on rice. Some of these drinks are exported by local businesses such as Go-Go Gwok! while Zeng-Hu has wrestled to control some of these brands in an attempt to stop them from competing with their own lineups.<br />
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===Synthetic Cuisine===<br />
Synthetic-unique cuisine is an unusual case in the Spur, but not for Konyang. Here, robots utilize gustatorial implants to - if inefficiently - consume, or at least “taste” food regularly. Indeed, there is an entire market for synthfood where robots can enjoy their own form of taste, texture and uniquely perceptive flavor for foods. Mostly, synthfood is described as a thick slime, one with varying additives for color. Texture is mostly a simulated process within gustatorial implants, given they are not always present on tongues alone - meaning that the actual texture of these synthfoods remains the same gooey substance.<br />
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''One can achieve a similar substance to these synthfoods mechanically by grinding certain foods into paste, or utilizing candy machines with your choice of ingredients and output.''<br />
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==Organized Crime==<br />
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=====Benevolent Guild=====<br />
The Benevolent Guild is a criminal organisation operating primarily within the decrepit, dark shadows of New Hong Kong. Originating as a mutual aid society for low income and forced penal colonists shipped into New Hong Kong by the Alliance government, it developed into a ruthless crime syndicate with strong ties to the local lower class community. From the start, the tightly knit communal and familial ties have played an important role in preserving the gang’s power and shielding them from police action. Only in recent years has any meaningful progress been made, the allocation of governmental resources and the increasingly violent and profit-oriented tactics of the Guild having alienated much of the younger generation, chipping away at the once widely popular support.<br />
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Starting with extortion and loan sharking, the Benevolent Guild rapidly expanded into gambling, drugs and violent crime such as kidnapping both in New Hong Kong and in New Kowloon. It is not uncommon for synthetics that find themselves victims of the group’s loan shark tactics to be ‘collected’ as collateral damage and subsequently carted off to whichever corner of the Orion Spur where their new owners await them usually at a far cheaper rate than elsewhere. One of the few institutions on Konyang refusing to admit synthetics owing to a deeply conservative and spiritually esoteric internal ideology, a pragmatist outlook often compels them to deal with and even cooperate with IPC politicians, police and rival gangs. Connections with criminal organisations in the wider Spur have been confirmed to exist, as various crime syndicates in Xanu, New Hai Phong and Luna are known to be in connection with the Benevolent Guild.<br />
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=====5-Cheung=====<br />
Emerging as one of the strongest IPC/organic street gangs of Suwon, the 5-Cheung numbers in the thousands of members in the cities of the Suwon and Point Verdant prefectures. The organisation’s origin as a loose collective of delinquents and fringe elements has since developed into a nationwide crime family with a powerful hierarchy fielding biker gangs and thugs to enforce their tight grip on the underworld. With a black repertoire of gambling, extortion, money laundering and narcotics, the 5-Cheung is considered a main rival to the Benevolent Guild of New Hong Kong, the two frequently coming to blows in a series of wars and uneasy truces over control of turf and general competition.<br />
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An open secret in the country’s political sphere has the 5-Cheung profit lucratively from corruption in the highest levels of government and police. During the Solarian era, prominent politicians employed protection from the 5-Cheung, soliciting their services in voter swaying, intimidation of opposition members and violent disruption of rallies and demonstrators. This has given the gang a justified reputation for being the political soldiers of ruling dynasties and representing the authorities in the underworld and on the street in exchange for immunity from prosecution. Following Konyang’s independence, the reformed National Police retained a virtually unchanged staff while the nation’s same prominent political families, now unshackled from Alliance oversight, enjoy even more freedom. As such, it is safe to say that 5-Cheung’s entrenched position will continue to remain untouched aside from the occasional drug bust and arrest of low level members.<br />
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=====Sea Bandits=====<br />
Although both the previous colonial administration and the nascent Konyanger Armed Forces and Coast Guard have tried to stamp out piracy, the sheer expanse of the planet means that groups of what the authorities call “sea bandits” continue to infest the waters and orbit of Konyang. Ranging from small motor boats launched from fishing villages with nothing more than an antique rifle, to retrofitted probes salvaged from the refugee waves pouring into the system, piracy is one of the most pressing social and security issues faced by the newly formed nation.<br />
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Individual pirate groups usually number no greater than twenty people but the Sea Bandits as a whole operate as a wider criminal network inclusive of individuals and crews from all over the planet. By coordinating their activities and intelligence through encrypted sites, the organisation manages to both evade and stay one step ahead of the authorities. Most of their activities take the form of kidnapping, armed robbery of craft and hijacking unescorted seafarers, while admittedly avoiding the busiest and well guarded sealanes and locations. The most audacious raid by the Sea Bandits to date involved the boarding and ransoming of a cruise ship by the use of an unregistered freighter. Although only circumstantial evidence has been uncovered, Golden Deep Zaibatsu have also been accused of working with Sea Bandit groups by launching probes full of narcotics, to be recovered by the pirates.<br />
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==Synthetics on Konyang==<br />
As the origin of the integrated positronic chassis now found throughout the Orion Spur, Konyang has always had a quite unique relationship with IPCs, the IPC population constituting a staggering 34% of the total population. While IPCs throughout the Sol Alliance are often looked upon as little more than property, tools, or novelties depending upon their frame those found upon Konyang possessed a notably greater degree of autonomy and freedom before the planet’s secession from the rest of the Alliance, achieving full and unconditional freedom afterwards. Legal ownership of synthetics within the borders of the Republic does not exist, the Emancipation Act constituting one of the first acts passed by Parliament. IPCs can work wherever they like, live however they please within the confines of the law, and partake in politics by voting or being elected. As such, foreigners are repeatedly cautioned to not bring any privately held IPCs with them, for they cannot be forced to return unwillingly.<br />
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Ordinary Konyangers, as a result of the planet’s liberal outlook on positronics, possess a more positive view of synthetics than other humans in the Orion Spur - particularly those from the Sol Alliance and its former territories. The majority of people on Konyang view IPCs as amicable colleagues and neighbours, with many friendships between man and machine being established. Closer bonds such as marriage are also legalised and not unheard of, though not without outcries from the more conservative spectrum. Many scholars theorize that this is due to the prevalence of IPCs in daily life on Konyang, seamlessly blending into society, in addition to the pride many citizens have in their planet being the origin of the modern positronic. Konyang’s integration of IPCs stands with some degree of contrast to Biesel’s, with the large synthetic ghetto of District 14 segregating many synthetics from the average citizen of the Republic of Biesel.<br />
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With Konyang’s independence, IPCs share full legal equality with all organic citizens of the planet. This concession was given, both as an acknowledgement and acceptance of the fact that synthetics have become part of everyday life in the colony and are generally accepted by its inhabitants. Unlike the Republic of Biesel, IPCs in Konyang seek to assimilate into human society, with IPCs being given the choice to adopt a second, “human name” before receiving citizenship. A human name can range from an entirely new name, to adding a first or last name of any kind to their existing designation.<br />
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Many positronics can be found within the economy of Konyang with perhaps the most famous (or infamous) one being Gwok-0783 (now Kim Gwok-0783, under post-independence IPC naming conventions), the owner and operator of her very own food conglomerate in the form of Go-Go Gwok! Authentic Konyanger Moss. As Go-Go Gwok! is technically an interstellar corporation, Gwok-0783 herself relied on a series of legal loopholes centered around Konyang’s former IPC laws to maintain control of the company when Konyang was still in the Sol Alliance. Examples such as Gwok, with her control of an inter-planetary corporation, are fairly rare. However, many positronics have made a successful name for themselves as small business owners and corporate workers on Konyang.<br />
[[File:Konyang vault.png|thumb|A mysterious vault upon Konyang's surface, unearthed and built around with monitoring infrastructure.]]<br />
Due to the system’s bluespace gate, many members of [[Synthetic_Factions#The_Golden_Deep|Golden Deep]] have secured permits to operate, as it allows their vessels to more easily make the journey from the frontier to the more lucrative markets of Tau Ceti and the Jewel Worlds. The money and business brought into the system by these synthetic traders has - arguably - been a major contributor to Konyang’s more liberal laws and regulations regarding IPCs. Konyang, before its independence, was one of the few systems under Solarian control in which IPCs could own and operate a business. <br />
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The synthetic population in Konyang is regulated by the government. A set number of positronics are assembled each year under contract at Terraneus Diagnostics facilities in Point Verdant with the prospect of being granted citizenship after a 3 month life orientation period. The determined number is set annually by Parliament, backed up by the yearly census and statistics, with production increasing or decreasing depending on the number of human birth ratios, positronic shutdowns, and other factors. Expenses are met both through government funds and private donations, though debate on the matter is rarely heated as the amount of new brains numbers usually in the hundreds; a tiny fraction of positronics produced and exported in total. IPCs and positronics constructed for the purpose of selling them to a different country, are not covered by such regulations and are not given citizenship.<br />
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There are further regulations in robotics construction in Konyang. Any activated positronic brain can qualify under the Emancipation Act. Exceptions to the law exist for manufacturing and research, with Point Verdant in particular activating positronic brains for the sake of testing shells before shipping them off-world. The law has also sparked development in other fields of mechatronics, with Konyang beginning to lead the way in circuit-based robotics.<br />
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Despite gains for its IPC citizens, other positronic intelligences have not been so lucky. Although some brains have been repurposed as AI coordinators for cities; with no way to transition to humanoid frames, bound intelligences have been granted freedom, but often take contracts with corporations that result in a return to the old status quo, all for the sake of staving off destruction due to a lack of maintenance.<br />
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===Konyanger Augmentation of IPCs===<br />
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Augmentation on Konyang is a fascinating subject, where the presence of so many IPCs has brought success in modifying the Positronic body and mind. Famed explorations into the sectors of IPC modification include "sensory evolution," where synthetics' senses being amplified or dulled in extremes according to desire.<br />
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Primary among the delves into this evolution of the senses is the New Dawn Augmentation Movement. This is a Konyanger organization based on the improvement of the IPC lifestyle via modifying chassis, funded peculiarly by Terraneus Diagnostics. The movement is oddly organized as a non-profit, going against the corporation’s established modus operandi. This, coupled with the tantalizing opportunity to freely modify an IPC's form with donated funds leads to public skepticism of the augment movement’s motivations.<br />
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Still, the true size of the movement to augment and improve Konyang's IPC population is extraordinary in comparison to other stellar nations. Roughly 22% of Konyang IPCs have some form of corporate-funded augmentation to enhance themselves.<br />
[[File:Konyang augment1.png|thumb|A Konyanger design, the Scorpion Lobe is an augment which manipulates the perception of time for synthetics for better or worse.]]<br />
* '''SENSO-EVO/Scorpion Lobe'''<br />
A miraculous creation of Konyang's technological advancement, SENSO-EVO is the term aptly handed to Sensory Evolution's foremost product. This is the Scorpion Lobe, a similarly shaped attachment to the rear of a positronic brain which adjusts the rate at which the synthetic perceives time literally. The implications of this are seen as either a blessing or a curse — sometimes even utilized as a way to reduce problematic behavior in positronics.<br />
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These implants are commercialized to protect the integrity of brains which adopt extremely high speed tasks, or extremely tedious and slow ones, with a perception that best suits their given utility.<br />
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A double edged sword by nature, these are often removed by free positronic chassis due to their almost torturous nature. Some may find their lives flashing hours into moments, whilst others may find daily grinds to be impossibly long ordeals. Unfortunately, removing these implants is not always a safe procedure, sometimes damaging a brain or rendering the problem worse.<br />
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These were first manufactured by Hephaestus Industries on instrumental Konyang research facilities, and later acquired by Einstein Engines personnel in the same month - debates over the design’s origin have been ongoing since 2449.<br />
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===Recreational Software===<br />
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In the IPC community of Konyang, the culture of acceptance and freedom has always invited the curiosity of synthetics to imitate and follow human pastimes and habits. This in turn included activities such as smoking, synthetic flavours and eventually, recreational drugs. Due to the nature of the positronic, the only way to recreate such sensations is through software targeting and modifying specific programming in the brain. At first, this dangerous commodity was provided by amateur programmers using experimental and highly volatile code known as “overloaders”, leading to often irreparable and lethal damage to an IPC’s systems. The results of the few initial successes, however, proved promising enough for the idea to be seriously considered by upcoming Konyanger tech companies and business-oriented software engineers, leading to the first reliable and somewhat safe overloaders in the mid to late 2450s. <br />
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Popular awareness of recreational software became widespread upon its release as a commercial product, Konyang being the first world to introduce a marketable version of it. Usually sold inside a single-use stick drive, their circulation is approved by safety boards and is considered legal for responsible consumption, much like alcohol for organics, relying on the consumer for mitigation and avoidance of repeated use. Legal overloaders today can be found mainly in synthetic-centred retailers found around the major cities, their relatively limited availability and high price setting them as a luxury IPC item. Its effects include a wide range of results, from simulating the sensations of a light buzz to a short bout of excitement and joy, aimed at enhancing the experience at celebrations, parties and get-togethers.<br />
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However, where there is demand, there must be supply, and the fact that demand spiked as these new products launched paved the way to a large underground market of cheap, unsafe and highly unpredictable overloaders sold both by dealers and unlicensed street vendors of dubious reputation. An illegal overloader epidemic hitting the cities of Suwon and Boryeong in late 2459, led to intensified police crackdowns and government campaigns against illicit overloaders, labelling them as malware and the IPC equivalent of dangerous drugs. Virtually unrecognisable from a legitimate overloader without the seal, side effects are many times more powerful and addicting, appealing to adventurous synthetics and the financially insecure. From catapulting the positronic into a garbled, incomprehensive reality of simulated emotions to simply heightening the senses, the illegal overloaders’ addictive and dangerous nature leads many synthetics to disrepair, involving behaviour breaking glitches, hardware failures and more, all while guaranteeing a returning clientele.<br />
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Reception to recreational software has been mixed, dividing society and politicians on matters of free will, the dangers of overloaded IPC, and the overall ethics of deliberately creating and selling what are essentially drugs. Both synthetics and humans have loudly spoken against it, spawning demonstrations and dividing politicians across party lines. Legislation has already passed, categorising possession and distribution of illicit overdosers as strictly illegal, with heavy punishments for dealers and suppliers. Police and coast guard raids yield millions of unbranded overloaders each year, making highly publicised arrests while sending a message of absolute intolerance towards the malware. Despite this, circulation never ceases and exports to Xanu, Tau Ceti and Sol.<br />
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==Population and Major Cities==<br />
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[[File:Konyang_map_pol.png|thumb|800px|A map of Konyang showcasing the Prefectures and the New Hokkaido Territory. Click to enlarge.]]<br />
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'''Suwon''' is the largest, most populated, and second wealthiest city on Konyang itself and is generally one of the larger cities in the Coalition of Colonies. It functions as both the planetary capital, as well as the capital of Suwon Prefecture, encompassing the entirety of Cheomsongtang. Symbolic of the new government is the Parliament Building, a massive structure of flowing lines and sustainable technology, incorporating pieces of the first colony ship. The Prime Minister's Government House, the President's Crimson House, the Solarian embassy, as well as embassies from various Coalition states are present here as well. Standards of living in wealthiest areas of Suwon are equivalent to and (sometimes) even surpass the living standards of places such as Highland City or Argia sa Mar, demonstrating how wealthy the robotics boom has made some sectors of the planet. A lack of readily-available materials, however, ensures that even the super-rich of Konyang often live in smaller houses than their Colonies planet counterparts. Life outside these wealthy areas is better than life in most cities in Himeo but dramatically worse than in the very wealthy areas, or even the cities of Xanu Prime. Overcrowding is a massive issue for the government of the city, with no obvious solution presenting itself due to how expensive importing new building materials is post-boom. The city is home to most of Konyang's biggest companies and office complexes, as well as the Suwon Stock Exchange, making the city's financial district the economy's beating heart. "Shoebox apartments" are common here, as are Konyang's often egregious traffic issues. The city is fortified with extensive sea walls, flood walls and flood gates to prevent natural disasters during the wet season, tropical storms being fairly common.<br />
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[[File:Point verdant.png|thumb|One of Aoyama's many skyscraper blocks, safely located behind a dam.]]<br />
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'''Aoyama''', known in the larger Spur as '''Point Verdant''', is the second most-populated city on Konyang, and the industrial heart of its robotics industry. Built along a coastal mountain range from which it draws its namesake, it is by far the wealthiest city on Konyang, and one of the richest cities in the Coalition of Colonies. Due to being home of the Robotics Boom, hosting foreigners and their families that once even surpassed the locals inside the city, Aoyama is frequently known outside to outsiders and to the Spur at large as Point Verdant, much to the chagrin of the locals. Aoyama is home to the renowned Point Verdant Terraneus Institute of AI Research, and is the poster child for the rapid development of Konyang's cities during the Boom. The city is extremely wealthy, but suffers from persistent overcrowding and traffic issues in all of its districts. The Pusan District, near PVTI, had the reputation of possessing the worst traffic in the Alliance according to its residents. Air quality in Aoyama is regarded as subpar, due to the amount of robotics factories in the city's outskirts, which have however slowly but steadily declined since. Being the focal point of the Robotics Boom, it is home to a large number of expatriate communities and Einstein Engines employees.<br />
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'''Boryeong''', named after a city on historical Earth where some of its colonists originated from, is the third most populated city on Konyang and capital of the Boryeong Prefecture, referred to as the breadbasket of the nation. The city, while still suffering overcrowding issues, has it to a lesser extent than Point Verdant or Suwon, with the city's outskirts necessitating a need for space due to the vast hydroponics farms and water plants. A second-grade industrial city of much natural beauty, Boryeong is more rustic than its counterparts, with wood playing a much more prominent role in construction; outside the central ring, some of Boryeong's districts are built entirely out of timber. Water bottled or processed in Boryeong is sold throughout the Alliance and Coalition in bulk, and native moss grown in the prefecture is marketed throughout both as a luxury food. Over half of the city's labourers are employed in hydroponics, aquaculture, fishing and food processing, with Gwok Foods being the largest provider of work in the region. Synthetic moss is grown in Zeng-Hu facilities near Boryeong and, despite being regarded as lesser quality than natural moss, is often consumed in poorer areas of Konyang. <br />
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'''Ganzaodeng''', named for its dry locale, is located in Konyang's only desert and holds the largest expatriate populations on the planet, being nicknamed, “Little Sol”. Due to its unique geographic setting, it faces remarkably calmer weather than the rest of the planet, with the city being connected to the rest of the island by air and rail that cuts right through the mountains. Ganzaodeng is Konyang's only planned city with origins in the Robotics Boom, when the foundations were laid for a city envisioned by foreigners, for foreigners. Rich Solarians descended upon the planet's seemingly only dry piece of real estate, building a city full of nightlife and eclectic inner-ring pleasures within the distant colony. By the end of the Boom however, the city's famous strips of casinos and luxury hotels still operating in downtown Ganzaodeng became a symbol of a bygone era, as much of the Solarian population elected to depart. The city passed into native Konyanger hands, being expanded into a hub of shipping with the help of the city's remaining big names. Because of the reliably clear weather, Ganzaodeng has developed a sprawling extraplanetary shipping sector, with plans for a spaceport larger than New Hong Kong’s, as well as future schemes for the largest oceangoing port on the planet. Its climate has resulted in the prefectural government engaging in moss filtration efforts to open up the surrounding beaches to tourism. Despite of the Solarian exodus, the city stands in contrast to the rest of Konyang’s relatively conservative social nature, with people from all over the Spur calling it their home and making it by far one of the most multicultural centers on the planet. It’s not uncommon for a person from Ganzaodeng to know two or three languages.<br />
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'''New Hong Kong''', the site of the former naval base of the 58th Solarian Fleet, has now developed into a fully fledged city in its own right, being the only prefectural capital with a local synthetic majority. Being regarded as a lot more pedestrian and working-class than Suwon and Point Verdant, New Hong Kong is nonetheless a very important centre of interplanetary trade and commercial activity, hosting the planet’s largest ocean ports and dockyards, being the country's industrial's hotspot and the seat of power generation. Large hydroelectric dams, wave energy converters, dockyards and factories belonging to the PACHROM corporation provide employment for half of the city’s inhabitants, the Prefecture of New Hong Kong generating enough electricity for domestic consumption as well as exports. Employees of the various power companies may also elect to be sent off to one of the many power generation isles scattered throughout the oceans and dedicated solely to that purpose, receiving better pay in exchange for more dangerous conditions away from home. The city itself is considerably more packed than its counterparts, with small cramped apartments being stacked over each other to form vertical mazes of working class blocks. Heavy smog and particles cover up the sky through the entirety of the island during the dry season, giving the prefecture a signature orange-brown tint. This, as well as constant heavy rains and a near permanent gloomy weather during the wet season place it as undesirable for humans. Seat of the National Party, downtown New Hong Kong is described as the centre of planetary IPC politics, being the first to react to, condemning or praising events in Konyang and throughout the galactic stage in regards to the synthetic “race”. New Hong Kong is additionally the birthplace of Konyang's labor unions, with the Socialist Party enjoying strong support from the city's human blue-collar workforce.<br />
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[[File:Konyangdam.png|thumb|900px|center|Dams are a very common sight on Konyang, with the New Hong Kong's dam in the neighbouring industrial town of New Kowloon providing only a fraction of the power required by the city, while also playing an important part in flood control and water filtration.]]<br />
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[[Category:Pages]]</div>The Strykerhttps://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=Konyanger_Government_and_Politics&diff=32019Konyanger Government and Politics2024-02-21T14:29:00Z<p>The Stryker: Created page with "{{Navbox Lore}} {{Navbox Human Lore}} {{Navbox Konyang}} {{toc_right}} ==Government== Konyang is organized as a unitary, semi-presidential parliamentary republic in which the President of the Republic holds few but powerful executive powers, vested in them by the country’s constitution of 2462. Formed by an assembly of Konyanger politicians, capitalists and intellectuals, the young republic has never experienced war or any other significant troubles and complications..."</p>
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==Government==<br />
Konyang is organized as a unitary, semi-presidential parliamentary republic in which the President of the Republic holds few but powerful executive powers, vested in them by the country’s constitution of 2462. Formed by an assembly of Konyanger politicians, capitalists and intellectuals, the young republic has never experienced war or any other significant troubles and complications that plagued the Alliance and many post-Alliance worlds seeking their independence, allowing the nation to experiment and develop its politics naturally and on its own. Borrowing much from their previous colonial masters, many institutions, official positions and processes are styled after their Alliance counterparts, upon which base the new government was founded.<br />
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===The President===<br />
When the colonial government ceased to exist, almost the entirety of political executives were Konyangers, including the Governor, Hyun Kyung-Ho. This, coupled with the competence of Hyun allowed him to maintain and empower his new position as head of state and not make it ceremonial. The President’s term of office is limited to six years, with a two consecutive term limit, though reelection for more than two terms is permitted. Presidential elections are a parliamentary affair, requiring special parliamentary sessions where candidates are selected and voted on in cycles, until only two remain, from which the President is elected with a simple majority. The President as head of state can call for national elections, dissolve parliament and appoint new governments bound by the election results. They can veto laws, sign bills into law, grant emergency powers to the cabinet and are the Supreme Commander of the Konyang Armed Forces. These increased powers for a person not directly elected by the nation, is not foreign to the planet's populace and political sphere, and is viewed as simply a continuation of the colonial office of the governor with enhanced checks and balances. While Konyang was under Alliance rule, the governor was always a Konyanger native to counterbalance the Navy's presence which had the final say over the civilian government. As such, the office was viewed as working and representing the people and keeping the "foreign" military power at bay, lending it a much more favorable light after independence. While the old colonial governors resided in Government House, the President has now been awarded the famous Crimson House as a residence and office instead, a vast estate outside Suwon reserved for the 58th Fleet’s admiral while on Konyang.<br />
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===Government and Legislature===<br />
Most executive power is vested in the country’s government, headed by the Prime Minister who appoints their cabinet of ministers. The Prime Minister is an elected representative and head of the highest voted party after National Elections, who nevertheless must enjoy the confidence of the Parliament by holding a 151 seat majority. The cabinet dictates all manner of policy and appoints Prefects to the country’s 5 prefectures, working in tandem with the also elected prefectural councils made up of the local mayors. The Prime Minister uses Government House as their personal residence while in office, and all ministerial buildings are located in Suwon, planetary capital of Konyang.<br />
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The legislative branch is comprised of the Parliament of Konyang, seated in the capital city of Suwon. Elections are held every four years with parties contesting the 300 seats. Members of Parliament are elected on a prefectural level, each prefecture assigned a fixed number of seats based on population. This arrangement, while seen as satisfactory by the majority, is regularly criticised by the politically active IPC community in the country as “biased and unfair”. MPs enjoy various privileges, such as high salaries, personal staff, housing, offices and a number of bonuses for living expenses and transportation. Most importantly, they hold immunity from prosecution which can only be lifted by a majority vote in Parliament.<br />
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===Prefectures===<br />
[[File:Konyang_map_pol.png|thumb|800px|A map of Konyang showcasing the Prefectures and the New Hokkaido Territory. Click to enlarge.]]<br />
Due to the geographical isolation of many of its islands, its cities developed as mostly independent regions. As such, it is now organized along the same lines, the planet being divided into five largely autonomous Prefectures, each headed by a Prefect appointed by the government. A prefecture is divided into its constituent Cities, Major Towns, Towns, Villages and Unincorporated Settlements, designated as such by the government based on their population numbers and output. Local elections take place every 4 years, where the inhabitants are called to vote for the mayors and council members of their settlement. Through those, each City, Town and Village is represented in the Prefectural Council, a prefecture-level parliamentary body the prefect has to work with to enact local laws and govern the region. For instance, each region often maintains its own public services, with the central authorities only stepping in when the local government has proven unable to meet certain standards.<br />
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===Foreign Relations===<br />
Shortly after its independence in late 2462, Konyang successfully applied for membership in the Coalition of Colonies in order to gain steady trade partners and better protect itself after the sudden collapse of the Sol Alliance. Readily accepted owing to their strategic position and innovative robotics industry, the planet’s relationship with its new partners quickly flourished based off of a mutually beneficial exchange of resources and information - Konyanger engineers, scientists, and technical designs now finding themselves prized throughout the Coalition. Common goods traded between the planets include vast amounts of moss, seaweed, and algae to feed lesser-off colonies, particularly in the Frontier, in exchange for raw materials. Xanu Prime in particular enjoys a closer relation with Konyang than most, having provided aid and advisors to help the planet during the turbulent months post-independence while simultaneously smoothing its path to joining the Coalition.<br />
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Konyang's sentiment towards the Sol Alliance is a complicated matter, one that still divides public opinion. Many view Sol as negligent overlords who abandoned Konyang in their greatest time of need, while others maintain that they were the reason the planet became so prosperous in the first place. Nevertheless, official relations remain awkward and frosty as though the Alliance refuses to recognize Konyang's independence, borders remain open for trade and tourism viewed as a necessity to keep both the planet and its former trading partners in the Northern Reconstruction Mandate afloat.<br />
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Progress has been made with Tau Ceti, which has become a noteworthy trading partner after Konyang's seccession, the two countries sharing cordial diplomatic relations as well as a Konyanger opening towards the SCC and its constituent megacorporations.<br />
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===Immigration and Visas===<br />
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Despite the rosy relationship Konyang now shares with the Coalition, the planet has refused to compromise on the topic of citizenship, insisting that Coalition citizenship only grants temporary access to the planet, the local government being given the authority to bar or allow all entrants. This move has been cited by observers as driven by the sudden influx of refugees and IPCs from the Sol Alliance, while others cite Konyanger cultural closed-off attitudes as the government’s motives. <br />
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Consequently, outside of tourists and refugees, Konyang only accepts residents and citizens under the following criteria:<br />
* Residents must have a work visa, only furnished by online, off-planet request when sponsored by a Konyang-based employer, or have family on the planet.<br />
* In order to apply for citizenship, a resident needs to have lived on Konyang for 10 years, be financially self-sufficient, and have committed no felonies.<br />
* Organics and IPCs are equally eligible to apply for residency or citizenship.<br />
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Refugees are another hot topic that emerged in Konyanger politics, following the Alliance's collapse into warlordism and the subsequent huge influx of both humans and IPCs seeking stability in Konyang. While receptive at first, attitudes quickly changed as the planet's already scarce resources were exacerbated. A solution had to be taken quickly, and a blanket ban on immigration was enforced and enshrined into legislation which exists to this day. Refugees escaping war are temporarily housed in the outskirts of towns and cities, in previously abandoned boomtowns that were converted into centers for this purpose as asylum requests are processed. The vast majority of applicants fail to meet the strict requirements and are rejected, before being sent to detention camps to be speedily deported. IPCs that escape their owners are subject to the same treatment, even if throughout their stay on the planet they are considered free individuals.<br />
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==Politics==<br />
Konyanger politics are a complex topic influenced by centuries of colonial rule, East Asian origins and the Positronic Revolution. Three distinct periods can be identified, categorizing and tracking the development of political ideas on Konyang from its foundation to the present day.<br />
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'''Pre-Boom (Early 24th to Early 25th centuries)'''<br />
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During Konyang’s early days, the primary question was one of survival and development of the colony. The first settlers pooled both their efforts and minds into the construction of a new life with heavy reliance on supplies from the Alliance and the Home Countries. Political factions were soon established, and while Konyang was under direct colonial rule, they all bargained with and influenced the Governors. In general, public sentiment was always pro-Alliance, following whatever line the government and stationed naval forces dictated. A strong connection with the Home Countries continued on the political level as well, the Konyanger identity being sidelined in favor of the settlers’ original nationality. Instances of direct influence such as the '''Konyang KMT''' (K-KMT) on behalf of Federative China, fueled tensions and encouraged factionalism. To counter the New Hong Kong-based party, the Korean and Japanese residents of Suwon formed the '''Settler Committee''', battling for funds and grants from the colonial government.<br />
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Meanwhile, being lightyears away from Earth afforded freedoms to many who would have otherwise not been able to express themselves back home. Socialist leaning thoughts were to say the least, a taboo subject back home. Konyang presented new ground for these ideas, under the tolerant laws of the Alliance. The first free labor unions form in New Hong Kong, alarming K-KMT officials and starting a familiar rivalry. Despite attempts at suppression, the '''United Dockworkers''' spearhead campaigns that pressure the Governor’s office into decreeing better safety legislation, protection from Einstein Engines, hazard pay and other measures, boosting the Union’s worldwide popularity and establishing it as a flagship political force for the left. Other movements did not share the same success, remaining in the fringes or turning to lawlessness, particularly in the more remote areas the government could not reliably aid. This marked the rise of Konyanger piracy, with factions such as the '''Communist Party of Konyang''' operating from the jungles and coves.<br />
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'''Colonial Era (Mid 25th century to 2462)'''<br />
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Starting shortly after the Robotics Boom, Konyang experienced a societal shift; the rapid industrialization and the enormous inflow of foreign funds dramatically altered the lives of the inhabitants, lifting the planet from a backwater colony into the modern era. New cities and towns were created within a matter of years, the standard of living was greatly improved, the population growth accelerated and people turned to the cities. The urbanization drew the factional and ethnically entrenched rural communities into city blocks, fusing together a truly Konyanger identity, while the introduction of IPCs into society created new questions about their status. The K-KMT barely survived the change, splintering and losing support to various other parties focused on Konyanger rather than New Hong Kong issues. The Settler Committee was reshaped into the moderate '''New Konyang Party''', members of which were exclusively selected for the Governor’s office by Solarian authorities, due to the party’s broad appeal and popularity.<br />
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The Colonial Era of Konyanger politics also saw the rise of energetic student movements, distinct in their nature and with a view towards liberalization and activism. Students frequently marched the streets of Suwon, Aoyama and Boryeong to address issues on education, social inequality, the removal of the 58th Fleet and even Konyang’s accession into the Alliance as a Sovereign Solarian Nation. IPCs were not left out either, with the youth pioneering synthetic rights activism in Sol space. Copying the Settler Committee, the '''Positronic Rights Committee''' was established, gaining followers and supporters in urban centers, against the wishes of the still powerful Dockworkers union.<br />
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'''Post-Colonial Era (2462-Present)'''<br />
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Shortly after Konyang’s independence and the recession it had followed, Konyanger politics experienced a shift once more. The 300-seat parliament and prefectural governments were now open to contest between political parties, many of which were organized along the lines of movements rather than actual political establishments. All in all, Konyangers tend to stray away from particularly radical rhetoric, preferring social peace and stability rather than change.<br />
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===Political Parties===<br />
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'''New Konyang Party'''<br />
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'''151 Seats'''<br />
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The NKP gained additional support during the transition to independence, based largely upon the actions of its former leader, Hyun Kyung-Ho, who oversaw the creation of the modern republic. The party is considered to be a moderate conservative one, advocating for a strong and sovereign nation backed up by strict migration laws and a robust foreign policy. It is the current governing party following the June 2463 elections, holding as well the Prefectures of Suwon, Aoyama, Boryeong and Ganzaodeng. Economically, it follows a policy of limited government middling in the market, allowing corporations to secure luxurious public work contracts and even sharing control of public services, such as the Konyang Robotics Corporation with Einstein Engines. Internally, it initiated the full emancipation of the IPC population, following a policy of rapid integration of positronics into society, matching the public sentiment. The single most voiced criticism against New Konyang however, is its generations of dominance in Konyanger political affairs, its massive network of cronyism and repeated practices of nepotism, bribery and corruption in virtually every level of the colonial and present government; the personification of a deeply rooted status quo, tolerated due to its moderate stance and lack of particularly bad blunders throughout its existence.<br />
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'''National Party'''<br />
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'''96 Seats'''<br />
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Born out of the ideas of the Positronic Rights Committee, the National Party comes second in parliament, with the prefecture of New Hong Kong under its belt. Taking the country in a storm, the National Party created just before the elections presented the public with a second option that would stand against the centuries-old rule of the NKP, while appealing to Konyanger conservative beliefs.It has variously been described as populist and left-wing nationalist, placing two core issues at the forefront of its agenda: IPC representation and Konyanger nationality. It maintains that Positronic persons are and have been an inseparable piece of the planet’s identity, all people of which are united under Konyanger nationhood. While agreeing to tight border controls and a powerful external presence, the NP often criticizes the government’s IPC population control and regularly denounces the involvement of big corporations in public life. The NP’s origin in New Hong Kong is also particularly interesting, managing to dislodge the Union of Dockworkers’ Socialist Party through the mass influx of industrial IPCs into the blue collar workforce and limiting it to the countryside.<br />
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'''Socialist Party of Konyang'''<br />
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'''30 Seats'''<br />
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One of the oldest trade confederations on the planet, the Union of Dockworkers have managed to rally around them virtually all of the labor unions of Konyang. Nominally representing the working man, the Union created the Socialist Party of Konyang as its political arm for the 2463 elections, landing third in parliament. Concerning itself with labor rights, it has long since dropped the issue of IPCs replacing Human workers, focusing instead on criticizing the presence of chaebols and megacorporations as part of its anti-corporatist agenda.<br />
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'''Peace and Unity Party'''<br />
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'''12 Seats'''<br />
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The PUP is the fourth and final party present in the Konyanger parliament, holding only a handful of seats. It is considered the successor to the liberal student movements of the Colonial Era and the spiritual successor to the Positronic Rights Committee, having since expanded their rhetoric to touch on every major aspect of society and the economy. It advocates for open borders, galaxy-wide peace, the limitation of megacorporations and monopolies, as well as a looser citizenship process. While finding fertile ground amongst the newer generations, it would seem that Konyang is not ready to resonate with many of their points.<br />
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'''K-KMT'''<br />
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'''11 Seats'''<br />
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Having its roots in Earth, the K-KMT was organized very early in Konyang’s history as a branch of Federative China’s own ruling KMT party, primarily as a measure of control and influence over the local population of New Hong Kong. As the Konyanger national identity developed however, many of its followers stopped identifying with the factionalism instigated by the K-KMT, resulting in a mass desertion during Konyang’s financial boom. Once the prime distributor of Patriotic Aid from Earth to the Chinese Konyanger ethnicity, the party slipped into further irrelevance as a renewed call for aid during the phoron crisis fell on deaf ears, defeating the last of its practical purposes and leading to its near-dissolution. It nevertheless persists inside parliament even today, focusing on Konyang’s cultural heritage and advocating for the reunification of Konyang with the Alliance and the Earther home countries, a rhetoric that makes it the party of choice for all Alliance sympathizers and nostalgists.<br />
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'''Communist Party of Konyang'''<br />
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Little is known of the Communist Party, aside from the fact that it never attempted to register or compete in the elections. Described by many as a criminal organization in association with the outlawed sea bandits, the Communist Party nevertheless has its own dissident identity rooted in the feats of old Earth communists. Whenever the National Police raids pirate hideouts, it is not uncommon for posters, portraits and propaganda leaflets to be found amongst stashes of weapons and stolen goods, indicating the bandits' political affiliations. The aptly named "Bandit's Coast" region of Boryeong sees the heaviest infiltration of outlaws and Communist Party activity, with many villagers and Chondo practitioners in the area actively supporting and harboring these elements.<br />
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==Demographics==<br />
Konyang’s ethnic mix up is far less diverse than other Human planets’, resulting in a strongly homogenous population with a significant expatriate minority. Since the beginning, Konyang's colonists were made up almost entirely of ethnic Koreans, Japanese and Chinese, with any other Alliance nationalities representing a tiny fraction of it. With a reduced enticement from immigration due to the planet's remoteness and lack of any significant development, the situation stayed more or less the same, until Konyang's Robotics Boom, which catapulted the colony to one of great interest. Millions of foreign workers, scientists and corporate employees flocked to the planet to participate and share in its newly found fortune, creating expatriate communities of their own and injecting much-desired capital to fuel the rapid development of the economy. Such was the impact of the migration that the foreigners outnumbered the native Japanese Konyangers of Aoyama, making the city known to the wider world as Point Verdant, after the name of the local Terraneus Diagnostics facility which was home to the birth of the positronic brain.<br />
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Since then however, the return of normality after the twilight of the Boom led to the majority of foreigners leaving; the prime draw of positronic AI had spread away from Konyang and into the rest of the Alliance. The expatriates thus abandoned Konyang just as fast as they had arrived, leaving behind significant economic development and derelict industrial zones alike. While the percentage of foreigners on Konyang is now less than 2% of the total population, their numbers would soon be replaced by a rapidly rising IPC community. Presently, while virtually all citizens identify as Konyanger nationals, heritage remains a part of people's identity, as reflected in their names, the local dialect, religion and customs, even with a lot of fusions between the three cultural groups. The prefectures of Suwon and Boryeong are primarily of Korean heritage while Aoyama boasts of a Japanese heritage. New Hong Kong has always been a stronghold of a Chinese and Cantonese majority, with Ganzaodeng following last as the least populous prefecture on Konyang, with a heavy mixup of Chinese and foreigner communities. IPCs are present in all urban centers and rural areas, with most of them residing in New Hong Kong, followed by Aoyama.<br />
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==Linguistics==<br />
Konyang's Earther heritage is vibrant and evident in the customs and languages that people speak. In every city, town and village, one will come across the local language being written and spoken alongside the planet's version of Sol Common, a practice that has become standard in a country that pursues equality between its constituent ethnicities and their unification under a common Konyanger identity. Over 70% of Konyangers are bilingual, having a grasp of their original Earther language. Many families especially in the countryside speak their regional language at home, leading to new generations perpetuating the practice and even preferring it to Sol Common. Prefectural schools also offer them as optional courses, with deeper learning being available in the form of local languages institutes and prefectural universities.<br />
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'''Konyang Solarian Common'''<br />
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The Konyang Solarian Common, also known as Konyang Common, is the official language of the state, spoken by virtually everyone on the planet and considered the standard language for everyday life. It is a dialect of Solarian Common, with the two having mutual intelligibility to a substantial level. Their differences lie mainly in the vocabulary, with Konyang Common replacing many words of descent foreign to the East Asia region of Earth, while staying more or less grammatically similar. Another significant difference is the complete absence of the Latin script in written Konyang Common, with solely the simplified Han system being in use. While this makes the language able to be spoken by Solarians, many find it difficult to read and write if they do not possess knowledge of the Han script. Konyang Common is an obligatory subject taught in every school, and every IPC citizen activated in the country receives it as a pre-programmed language datapack. While many families are bilingual, there are those that can only communicate in Common, especially in Suwon and the other melting-pot urban centers. The similar origin to the regional languages however, guarantees a certain level of mutual intelligibility. Konyang Common is also the language in exclusive use by the military.<br />
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'''Hangugeo'''<br />
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Hangugeo is the second most spoken language with its own script, directly descended from the Earther Korean language. It is spoken by about one third of the country and is more prevalent in Suwon, Boryeong and Point Verdant. Hangugeo can be taught in schools as an optional course in virtually all prefectures, though many children learn it from home at an early age. Many villages in Suwon and Boryeong only communicate with Hangugeo, which is also the language of countless rituals, festivals and religious functions in these lands. One can observe the prevalence of this language in Suwon during the night, with some roads being neon-lit with signage exclusively in Hangugego. Official government buildings in the two prefectures also feature both Common and Hangugeo, as do traffic signs, instruction books, local holovision channels, and more.<br />
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'''Nihongo'''<br />
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Nihongo is a language with its own script, descended from the Japanese language of Earth. Brought to Konyang by the settlers originating from the Japanese islands, it is spoken primarily in Aoyama and Suwon, though Nihongo speaking communities can be found all over Konyang. It features prominently on official signage all over Aoyama and the islands within that prefecture, but is otherwise not encountered in the rest of Konyang as greatly as Hangugeo. Nihongo also dominates every aspect of the Shinto religion, and many pieces of culture such as poems and books are written in the language, adorning the national libraries of the state. A strongmovement of writers and artists in Aoyama has recently become the backbone of an effort to spead the use of Nihongo across the country, leading to a resurgence of interest in the cities aimed at boosting the literacy of Konyangers of Japanese heritage in the language.<br />
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'''Hanyu'''<br />
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Hanyu is a language sharing the Han script and many similarities with Konyanger Common, and is as such the easiest to understand for many Konyangers. Spoken and seen primarily in New Hong Kong and Ganzaodeng, Hanyu is the language most connected in the minds of many to the planet's blue-collar industrial workforce, with tidbits of it always able to be heard in every hydroelectric dam, sea wall and shipyard in the New Hong Kong prefecture. Used alongside it by Konyangers of South Chinese descent is a unique dialect and standalone language known as '''Gwondungwa''', spoken widely in many parts of New Hong Kong such as New Kowloon. Outside New Hong Kong, Hanyu can sometimes be followed by an unfortunate reputation; the language's connection to the Triad clans of the Benevolent Guild is something that many Chinese Konyangers are regretful of, with many PR campaigns throughout the prefecture's time having been aimed at rehabilitating the image of Hanyu and Gwondungwa in the eyes of public opinion.<br />
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'''Encoded Audio Language'''<br />
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Encoded Audio Language is a most widely spoken language, owing to the planet’s nearly positronic inhabitants, all of which are programmed by default to speak it. It is not a language that the human ear can comprehend, appearing as various pitches of white noise, accompanied by beeping sounds that only a machine can make. It has no script, instead relying on machine-readable mediums such as linear and matrix barcodes. Its compact form and IPC-friendly Konyanger culture makes it by far the most prevalent language in signage, with hundreds of words able to be conveyed instantaneously to IPC shoppers, workers, home media consumers and more with a single line of barcode. It is by law attached to all important official notices and signage, alongside Konyang Common, which IPCs are also taught to speak.<br />
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'''Others'''<br />
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Tradeband is a language of Solarian origin with its own Latin script. It appears only sporadically in exclusively expatriate communities in Point Verdant and Ganzaodeng. Its foreign nature and Romance sounds are steadily turning it into a language of prestige and luxury amongst the higher circles, with Tradeband speakers believing they possess a grade of richness and exoticism over their peers. For many Konyangers, being able to communicate in Tradeband brings up an image of high-end deals with foreign Solarian businessmen, fine Idris suits and expensive watches.<br />
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Freespeak is a language brought to Konyang through its constant dealings with the nearby Coalition of Colonies, the then Frontier Alliance. Despite its foreign origins, it has grown into a language of trade, with many Konyanger merchants being forced to learn it for their dealings with neighboring worlds. It is offered in schools as an optional language course, with many families now encouraging their children to learn Freespeak in the face of the recent accession into the Coalition. Freespeak is also a language that many in the pro-Solarian political circles steer clear of, regarding it as a tongue spoken by traitors and colonists whose ties to the Alliance are long lost.<br />
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Tau Ceti Basic is a language of Solarian origin that while previously confined in the expatriate and corporate circles, it has seen a significant rise in popularity within Konyanger society in the last 2 years or so, owing to an increase in dealings with Tau Ceti and its megacorporations. Many young people are particularly exposed to Bieselite media, making them inclined to adopt a conversational skill in the admittedly easy to learn Basic. The language is also connected to the vast influence of megacorporations that exist outside of Konyang, and many have to learn it if they wish to find employment within Nanotrasen and the SCC.<br />
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==Religion and Holidays==<br />
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The Republic of Konyang is a secular state with no official religion. With around 72% of the population professing no faith, it nonetheless maintains strong communities of various religions carried over from the colonists’ home countries. The urban areas are the most irreligious compared to the rural towns and villages, the people of which are regarded as more spiritual in general. While shrines and temples do exist in most cities, it is the countryside where one can see them dotted out in the jungles and mountain ranges, maintained by the local communities.<br />
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Despite the predominant atheism or agnosticism in Konyanger society, religious traditions remain a significant part of the national culture. Government mandated public holidays often fall on the same days as major religious holidays, cabinet members and local officials regularly pay visits at major shrines, while nominally religious festivals have become cultural staples in all five prefectural capitals, attracting thousands every year. Ancient traditional dress that was once lost to the adoption of streetwear and business attire, has been revived and preserved through direct connection with certain faiths. It is then frequently worn and enjoyed by millions during these days, ensuring the original cultures’ continuation while making artisans and craftsmen in towns and villages thrive.<br />
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'''Folk Religions'''<br />
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A blanket term for the myriad of local faiths, ranging from or incorporating elements of shamanism, polytheism and animism, folk religions are most frequently found in settlements outside urban centers. There is no semblance of organization, with each community usually having their own deities and customs, which usually share elements with the faiths of nearby villages or the wider area. They are heavily influenced by the settlers’ original ethnicities, becoming vastly different in terms of language, dress and traditions depending on the Hangukin, Nihonjin and Zhongguorin origins. During the nearly 150 years of Konyang’s settlement, many new distinctly Konyanger folk religions have sprung up, mostly centered around the rich natural environment or fauna. Positronics are usually welcome to partake if they wish, with a few IPCs known to have become shamans and priests in their local communities. Folk festivals are usually organized between villages and nearby towns in tandem with the secular authorities, with virtually every area enjoying some sort of regional celebration.<br />
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'''Shinto'''<br />
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A religion of exclusively Japanese origin, Shinto is a nonetheless disorganized religion revolving around the existence of kami - minor and major deities connected with the natural world and various aspects of daily life. Initially mostly encountered in the Aoyama prefecture, Shinto practitioners can today be found everywhere, the religion having been adopted by many Konyangers all over the globe. Ever since the arrival on the planet, many new kami have been created or fused with old ones, giving Konyanger Shintoism a distinct identity. A central aspect of Shinto are shrines dedicated to kamis as a place where they can be venerated. Shrines are structures which can vary greatly in their size and architecture, and are usually maintained by the temple’s shrine maidens. Many Konyanger households have also adopted their own house altars, called kamidana, for the enshrining of kami. This has also progressed into a secular tradition as well, with many kamidana being present in a house to grant a family prosperity and good luck. Torii gates are also another cultural icon of Konyang and the Aoyama province in particular, where their presence marks the grounds of a shrine. They can be found commonly in the countryside, with many remaining hidden in jungles and overtaken by moss.<br />
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'''Buddhism'''<br />
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Another blanket term for the many sects of Buddhist teachings originating from East Asia, Buddhist religious elements can be found throughout Konyang in households of all origins. Based on tenets brought to the planet since its colonization, it is most famous on Konyang for the few of its monasteries present in the mountain ranges, as well as its rich history and traditions that have heavy influences in Shinto and many of the folk religions. Buddhist monastic communities are considered a significant part of Konyager heritage that attract hundreds of thousands of visitors every year, with specially designated monasteries allowed to operate freely on land donated by the prefecture.<br />
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'''Chondo'''<br />
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A peasant religion at its core, Chondoism is geographically limited to the coastal areas of Boryeong and Suwon, having a strong association with the piratical sea bandit factions and the downtrodden villages. Having entered a period of transformation and rebirth, it revolves around teachings of social equality under a God, challenging the establishment and building a bond between the rural peasantry for the improvement of their situation. Described more as a movement or political expression rather than a religion, Chondoism doesn’t possess any meaningful formal organization, festivals or temples, with many people mixing up Chondo teachings in the folk religions they actually practice. Due to its association with the sea bandits, practitioners of Chondo are looked on with suspicion by both the public and the state.<br />
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'''Trinary Perfection'''<br />
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The Trinary Perfection is the newest and an almost exclusively positronic religion with a few human followers, preaching the divinity of synthetic life and its eventual ascension with the help of organics for a better future. It is primarily located in Aoyama, with the nearby drone vaults considered a holy place and popular Trinarist pilgrimage destination. It is one of the few formally organized religions, and is somewhat unpopular with the general public and many secular IPCs, due to the perceived teachings of superiority of synthetics over humans. This unpopularity has sometimes gotten out of hand, with protests and violence against Trinary clerics and followers, requiring a substantial police presence around the Trinarist cathedral and other places of worship.<br />
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The most notable locations for the Trinary Perfection on the planet are the '''Cathedral of the First Positronic''' and '''Vault Provenance'''. The Cathedral of the First Positronic is a holy site that was built by repurposing a nearby vault. Meanwhile Vault Provenance, a name given by the Trinary Perfection clergy, was the vault which held the drones that led to the development of the first positronic brain. Tens of thousands of the Perfection’s faithful make pilgrimages to both sites, and the money these pilgrims inject into Konyang’s economy has been cited as another reason as to why the planet tolerates its presence. Trinary clergy are often educated on Konyang, and many of the highest-ranking officials in the faith were built on the planet.<br />
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'''Other'''<br />
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Christianity, Islam and other religions and religious movements have found a home in Konyang, having been brought over by both the original colonists as well as the immigrants during the Robotics Boom. These communities have their own temples, clerics and followers in the major cities, being allowed to practice freely under Konyang's tolerant legislation. Out of them, Christianity is the most popular with the native Konyangers, as some ethnic Koreans have professed the Christian faith since their arrival. All are however largely regarded as "foreign" by the vast majority of the population, who treat them with either indifference or benign curiosity.<br />
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'''Qixian New Year: January 15th'''<br />
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Adopted directly by all three communities from their original shared tradition, the Konyanger Qixian New Year is the most significant and widely celebrated day on the planet’s religious and secular calendar. Taking place yearly on the 15th of January, the date was standardized early on by the government to resolve disputes between the planet’s religions and religious sects that used their own versions of the Lunar and Qixian calendars. Hydrologically, it marks the beginning of the High Tides.<br />
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Fireworks are extensively used to mark the occasion at midnight, with people taking to the streets in major cities, towns and villages for the New Year Parade. The parade itself is the central and grandest spectacle of the night, and almost every organized institution in Konyang, from the military to the universities, takes part with dedicated parade teams. The paraders don traditional outfits and carry around enormous and overly decorated sculptures of animals or effigies of deities made of metal, wood or paper. Friendly rivalry is a strong element of the parade, with the participants trying to outdo each other in the creativity, amount and craftsmanship of their icon by grabbing the attention of the crowds. Alcohol, games and street candy are also major parts of the festivities, which reserve entire city blocks for the plethora of shop stands that are put up for the night, as well as the parade itself. In Suwon, it is tradition for the Prime Minister to attend from the veranda of Government House, underneath which the parade always goes through. A remnant from colonial times, this was a prime opportunity for the parade goers to tastefully voice their approval or discontent for the government through subtle signs on the sculptures, chants or dance moves as they passed under the balcony, though it’s not rare for this to get out of hand in times of economic strain and hardship.<br />
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For the religious aspect of the holiday, most practitioners start preparing from Qixian New Year’s Eve, with offerings or local religious celebrations and small festivals, mostly in the rural areas. Exchange of gifts is also widespread and varies from area to area, depending on the local culture and predominant religion. Dried moss is a particularly commonplace gift in the Suwon and Boryeong prefectures, meant to give the other person courage to last until the dry season. For most people however, the credit-filled red or white envelope never ceases to be a New Year’s classic, expected by all Konyanger children.<br />
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==Konyanger Culture==<br />
Having settled on the planet some two hundred years ago, the people of Konyang have brought with them the societal norms, traditions and culture of their original lands from Earth's East Asia region. While migrant waves during the country's Robotics Boom introduced a myriad of new and different communities in the cities, these have had little impact on Konyanger society at large, which has been shaped by its original ethnicities' backgrounds, its colonial history, and the most recent embrace of IPCs into daily life. Said synthetics now make up a large percentage of the population, adding their own uniqueness and enhancing Konyang's cultural field, despite being brought up to follow the norms established by their human compatriots. By and large, the most fundamental aspects of being a Konyanger are followed in every region of the planet, though each national prefecture has developed its own peculiarities, from local cuisine and fashion, to religion and outlook on life. <br />
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===The Three Values===<br />
Konyangers are raised to silently follow some core values, infused into them by both their families and the wider society around them. They are not named, nor are they set in stone or officially taught. Scholars however have grouped them in the three main categories of '''Harmony''', '''Reciprocity''', and '''Face''', around which most values revolve.<br />
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'''Harmony''' regards how a person fits in with their environment, conforming with a strict social establishment and expectations. It is a key aspect everywhere, and is how Konyangers perceive a functioning and well organised society. Standing out is permitted within boundaries, with contemporary fads being accepted as just that, and not something that is allowed to disrupt the established order and traditions of the wider public. In the cities, children are expected to follow certain predetermined paths, get a stable career and provide for their parents later in life. Questioning rules is something an adult will do with great difficulty and consideration, while silently enduring a situation is viewed as a sign of great virtue and patience. A proper Konyanger is always expected to be courteous towards strangers and the elders, as well as maintain a level of awareness of the public mood and their surroundings. Talking above a whisper on a packed city bus or train for example, would be considered rather awkward, or even rude, by the rest of the passengers. This emphasis on social harmony on Konyang can go to lengths that people from other countries may find weird; never will a Konyanger think of cutting in line as they stand in a queue, nor will it cross their mind to cross a road in the city without going through the crosswalk or under a red light, even in light traffic. Asking for a raise is considered taboo, and in many cases workers will find their careers reaching a ceiling due to the fallout of transfering to a different company. Penalties for breaking the social harmony are not immediately apparent to an outsider, since complaining of one's behavior and creating a scene is not something that most Konyangers will find easy to do, nor will the police be called in most cases unless the act is egregious or criminal. For a person living there however, it is something that becomes apparent for both themselves and their close ones. Especially in more tight knit communities in the towns and villages of the countryside, ostracization is a real threat a person's social environment can use against them to prevent them from standing out.<br />
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'''Reciprocity''' is a concept not dissimilar to the sense of community that many other colonial nations experienced during their founding days, still persisting in daily life on Konyang. It is the sense that people have a duty to assist eachother, even if they are unacquainted. This is extremely prevalent in the rural areas, where the smaller populations create a more personal dimension between the inhabitants of the village. Trading for goods and services between neighbors and families is a very common thing both there and in the cities, stemming directly from the cultural phenomenon of reciprocity. On Konyang, when someone offers help, it is only proper for you to offer something in return at some point in the future. This may range from something simple such as hand-me-down clothes or groceries, to favors or even sums of money. Everyone, no matter their situation, is expected to participate in this process according to their means; During certain holidays or festivities, families keep track of others that they need to reciprocate to, often leading to huge dinners with entire city blocks or the whole village coming to celebrate together.<br />
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'''Face''' is a broad and hard to translate culmination of all the above virtues, critical to the fabric of society. It can be considered to be the "social capital" for a Konyanger and their family, determined by the set of appearances and behaviors they use to interact with the world. As long as a person progresses according to societal rules, keeping up with the ideals of harmony and reciprocity, they are said to have "face". This is an important concept applying to all rungs of society, as average individuals and the biggest Konyanger conglomerates alike strive to maintain their level of dignity and honor. Without it one is considered to live in disgrace, affecting both themselves and anyone whom they might associate with. A person who has suffered a loss of face may, for example, be excluded from social events, be avoided on the street or even lose their job on account of strict Konyanger corporate ethics codes. Families tend hide the more "shameful" secrets in fear that they might be discovered, particularly in the countryside, and disgraced family members are often not spoken of again until their face is sufficiently rehabilitated. Public functionaries and well-known figures are also extremely considerate of their image, with scandals in both government and the corporate world often leading to scapegoating and ceremonial dismissal of those deemed at fault. It is not uncommon for low-level business officials to resign in disgrace on live TV, begging the public's forgiveness and taking the blame so that their company can save face.<br />
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The social pressure upon Konyangers has always been enormous compared to other developed planets across the Spur, though more and more young people rise to question and reject the status quo. Counterculture movements have always been prevalent in the cities, especially amongst the student movements both in the present day and during colonial times. Resistance to what they call an oppressive social regime has led to the emergence of new genres of music, fashion and art, with the youth pioneering ever more novel and often provocative forms of self expression. While older generations and society at large may consider them "fads" and "phases" that the youth will eventually "grow up" from, it is largely from these culture movements that things such as IPC rights rose from to become widespread and staple elements of Konyang.<br />
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===Work Culture===<br />
White collar employment is a major part of millions of Konyangers' lives, more so than people from other countries. Working for a local company is something a lot more intricate than how it is abroad, transcending the personal dimension one might have about their pay and career. For a Konyanger conglomerate, employment is a bond between the employer and the employee, from which both rights and responsibilities are born. Loyalty to the workplace plays a great role in people's lives, with employees expected to remain in their position for even their entire careers. Raises, promotions and benefits are handed out primarily based on time served rather than merit, rewarding the quiet and dedicated office worker. Knowing your place in the chain is very important in the office, as is observing decorum and the usually strict dress and ethics codes put down by the company. Unspoken rules dominate these environments, creating their own microcosm that reflects and accentuates the three values of Konyanger culture. It is custom that management treat their employees as part of an extended family; Konyanger corporations and firms have some of the best benefits packages, while no matter how badly underperforming, a loyal employee will never be fired, almost certainly receiving some sort of different post or responsiility that will accommodate them better instead. In exchange, full adherence to company rules is demanded, as well as a variety of personal initiatives will be expected, even if they are not included in the official responsibilities of the job. Personal donations for office events, undertaking additional work and regular overtime are very common expectations for workers, with the last two being particularly taxing. The old Earther concept of a "salaryman" is fully translatable to Konyang's white collar corporate culture, with many people putting work above their personal lives, often to a fault. Those that are unable to or refuse to integrate with the system are silently and swiftly pushed out, losing face and reputation between the corporate circles, blackening their record and significantly diminishing their chances of working at a different large Konyanger company.<br />
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The introduction of synthetics has exacerbated the workload issue. Konyanger employees are always expected to put in more hours to remain competitive against their synthetic counterparts, many of them willing to go to far greater lengths than what is healthy or required by their employer. The issue, particularly in Suwon, has grown to such an extent that local laws were passed, limiting IPC overtime work as well as making leaves mandatory for them in order for humans to catch up more easily. Such legislation has been fiercely debated as unconstitutional and infringing on the rights of synthetic citizens, nonetheless remaining in effect as a temporary, much needed measure. While a strong work ethic is a very common trait, the rural populace is generally more relaxed than their urban counterparts.<br />
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Most private local conglomerates such as PACHROM, big law firms, banks or shipping companies are more often than not exclusively interested in hiring Konyangers, Konyanger IPCs or people of shared descent, turning away foreigners apart from token numbers each year. This is due to a widespread perception that only Konyangers understand the fundamentals of the corporate culture, and thus will conform and not raise issues about the more oppressive elements of their employment. The more artistically inclined studios such as Konymation however, regularly bring in talent from abroad to enrich their style and productions. Creativity in Konyang's media industry is encouraged to thrive in the workplace, and while crunching and overtime are not unheard of, most studios are admittedly more relaxed environments compared to the strict office complexes. Blue collar work on the other hand, largely is in a rather different situation when it comes to obligations and expectations. As Konyang's industrial heartland rests within the prefecture of New Hong Kong, the concepts of forced overtime, unwritten rules and subservience to management do not exist, thanks to the region's history of robust labor unions and collective bargaining.<br />
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==Life in Konyang==<br />
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===Urban Life===<br />
The Konyang of the 2460s bears little resemblance to the minor colony of 2305. Expansive cities dot its islands, with everyday life flowing very similarly to other advanced societies abroad. Its major urban centers are the respective capitals of each prefecture, with Suwon, Point Verdant and New Hong Kong having the heaviest density. Living in these areas has both its advantages and drawbacks, as Konyang's challenging landscape required innovative and compact planning. Surrounded by the sea on one side and either jungle, mountains, or both on the other, Konyanger cities tend to follow a pattern which consists of a sprawling and chaotic urban network orbiting dense downtowns. Cramped apartment blocks are particularly popular an unfortunate staple of the planet's "city charm", with the majority of the denizens living in so called "shoebox studios" due to the limited planning space and the general lack of raw materials such as steel. In the city, a large living space is a luxury that few can afford without sacrificing proximity to the central districts, where most of the economic activity is present. High rents are the norm in these situations, and unsurprisingly, the rich have the best pieces of real estate in Suwon and Point Verdant, owning entire buildings or large apartments with a seaside view in the heart of the urban center.<br />
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Apart from the job security and higher salaries offered by office work, urban life on Konyang presents limitless opportunities for nightlife and entertainment, as well as bustling shopping districts dedicated entirely to attracting tourists and people from out of town. Additionally, services are very well developed in the cities, with a shop at every corner catered to every need a person might virtually have. Small restaurants and takeout spots provide much needed and cheap hot meals for salarymen to grab during their small lunch breaks, many situated strategically within convenient reach of the big firms and office complexes. Healthcare and repairs are readily available in the form of hospitals and KRC clinics, as well as ready access to the country's biggest ports and space shuttledromes. Public transport is managed through a system of light urban rail and buses, and is regarded as essential for day-to-day movement; thanks to the rapid expansion during the Robotics Boom, poor planning has resulted in mazes of roads that are near always congested. Car traffic can delay commuters for hours in the overcrowded cities, despite Konyang's automobile industry trying to create even more compact and energy efficient cars. The snarled traffic is, in an odd way, a symbol of pride for some Konyangers. The mere fact that they have enough vehicles to have traffic issues is, compared to the rest of the outer ring, a symbol of the prosperity that has resulted from the planet's robotics industry.<br />
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However, smaller towns outside of the more famous centers have a different standard of living, with most being employed in water-related industries or manufacturing jobs. Wood is used as the primary material for construction, giving Konyanger towns a signature look that mixes modern technological achievements with centuries-old designs. A significant upside to life in these areas is the relative abundance of space, allowing for single-house homes outside of the centers, attracting pensioners and large working class families. Most towns are sustained by a nearby farming complex, dam or industrial center where the majority of the population is employed, while additionally serving as a hub for the surrounding villages that depend on it. Regional health centers, schools and other services can in many cases only be found at such towns, making them beacons for the wider area. The standard is not the same for all however, as many of these former "boom towns" of the robotics industry are entering into a spiral of decay due to an inability to continue to maintain their buildings and utilities. The cessation of government grants from the Alliance, the increase in price of construction materials from the offworld and many more calamities brought on by the phoron shortage have made these places unsustainable, leading to a flight of the younger population in waves of increased urbanization, contributing negatively to the growth and skyrocketing the mean age of the inhabitants.<br />
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===Rural Life===<br />
[[File:Pylon.png|thumb|right|Convoluted electricity pylons are a very common sight in the countryside.]]<br />
Life in less populated areas and islands is generally regarded as more carefree, with coastal villages being relatively self-sustaining and liberated from the complicated stresses and cramped environments found in cities. Such settlements are dedicated to aquaculture, farming algae, as well as moss collection. One would struggle to find a village not built almost entirely out of wood, with lumberyards frequently dotting the countryside to exploit the lush jungles. Fishing is a major source of subsistence for rural people, with Konyangers being taught how to fish an take to the sea from a relatively young age. Most families usually own a boat, passed down from each generation to the next as a heirloom and major financial asset. Needless to say, virtually all Konyangers are apt swimmers from childhood, with diving being regarded as both a popular sport and a timeless tradition; some villages specialize in the export of certain goods that must be collected underwater by hand, at reefs and moss-covered seabeds, requiring diving which is often done without equipment. Farming, to a more limited extent, is also a big source of income for rural families. As adequately sized clearings are rare in the surrounding jungle, conventionally farming the boggy, heavily wooded Konyanger terrain is impossible without the low-scale terraforming conducted in the early colonial days. Today, most "farmers" delve into their plots of land inside the jungle to harvest the fruit, moss and other goods that grow naturally. Surprising as it may be, many IPCs find themselves in these communities, finding work in manual labour or in the fields. Considered fully integrated, synthetics participate fully in a village's social life, playing an important part of the social fabric and the workforce. It is not uncommon for a village to possess a KRC repair station and charging spots dedicated to positronics, and village shops are always stocked with goods and materials specifically for the IPC inhabitants.<br />
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Much care is given to keep the traditions of the original colonists alive, with old rituals thriving and sometimes only found in the rural villages. Shrines belonging to local religions are placed in prominent positions within the village, with many rural Konyangers having some form of memory of themselves playing, praying or celebrating in the presence of a statue of an animal deity or god. Traditional music, instruments and the art of making them remain vibrant in countryside culture as well, being in stark difference to the heavily industrialized electronic and pop music of the cities. Most crucial and known of all are the festivals, with every village being known for their own unique twist and tradition. People from all over the world flock to the rural areas during the holidays just to attend, with many involving big parades, shows, games and large amounts of local delicacies. The government is very supporting of such customs, not only for the planet’s cultural heritage but also as an important tourist attraction for both Alliance and Coalition visitors. Religious undertones are a lot more prominent in these celebrations and in village life in general, as are the concepts of family and conservative Konyanger values; respect and reverence of ancestors and the elderly are particularly important.<br />
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===Mariner Life===<br />
Sailors, workers in remote hydroelectric rigs, radio technicians on scattered islands and anyone else who spends considerable amounts of time surrounded by the planet's vast seas and oceans is considered a mariner, an often thankless line of work in which millions of people are engaged. A life at sea means a life away from the comfort of family and friends, a life filled with danger and the unknown. As such, a stoic outlook is often required to cope with these harsh realities, with many aged mariners are hardened from decades of hard work and struggle against waves, cold and rain. In fact, the sight of thick, worn-out raincoats is indicative of a person's life as a mariner, with flocks of yell and orange-jacketed figures being very common in the large port-towns and cities of Konyang. Sailors and outpost technicians are expected to spend multiple months on a journey or at their post, the former sometimes being afforded short breaks at various resupply stops along the way. This lifestyle is not for naught however, as salaries for these professions far exceed the wages of corresponding employment on land. Many mariners can afford to both support a family and bank funds for the future, their income imrpoving substantially as they move up the ranks. Entire coastal villages and towns offer up their men, women and synthetics to the sea, who in turn bring back enough capital to completely transform the area with beautiful buildings and public spaces; the nicer a coastal settlement appears, the more chances it is dedicated to some mariner-related industry. It is not uncommon for even the lowliest of sailors to eventually own a vacation home in the countryside in addition to their primary residence, and many high-ranking captains and rig managers combine their wages to purchase their own merchant ship, giving birth to an ever increasing number of shipping companies.<br />
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The mariner lifestyle has subsequently created a specific subculture they and their families all in some way or another share, involving both traditional Konyanger values and traditions of the sea. Fidelity and supportiveness are particularly important for the mariner's relatives to exhibit, and it is in some way socially mandated. Seafarers regularly receive gifts, provisions and mail from home or the locals in the more distant ports they visit, and households may throw large parties to celebrate the homecoming of a relative after a particularly lenghty journey. Religious talismans and charms are sometimes carried for good luck, though most are generally not superstitious. Cleanliness is a point of pride for mariners, and since freshwater is not an issue, a clean shaven appearance is extremely common on ships and sea stations.<br />
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==Media==<br />
Public media in Konyang is a powerful industry, and as broad as it may seem, it is very tightly knit. Aside from galactic-wide reruns and broadcasts of other nation’s shows, little seems to stand out - except the audio broadcast and illustrated artistic avenues. These two are well-refined artistic giants compared to other forms of entertainment on the planet.<br />
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A huge portion of the planet’s political views and very “personality” are channeled through its larger studios, where many are found enthused to spread its culture galaxy-wide.<br />
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===Audio Broadcast===<br />
Radio, or more broadly the global net of wireless communication, is a huge industry in Konyang. Many IPCs have found harmless additions to their daily lives to be the standard headset and wearable radio kit, permitting any number of fast EAL communication planet-wide streamed directly into their receptors. While not particularly lucrative, the major broadcast stations have made quick work to monopolize their grip over this method of communication. Analog radio has also held a prominent position in people's routine, dating back to early colonial times. Most households maintain an analog radio set able to tune in to Konyang's many different stations that broadcast day and night on a planetary scale. Mariners especially make frequent use of the radio, with talk shows, news, and shipping forecasts keeping them company and up to date along their voyages in the open seas.<br />
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'''Matsumoto’s Talk and Walk'''<br />
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Meant for the on-the-go working IPC, this Encoded Audio Language bluespace broadcast is run by a particularly energetic “Matsumoto.” Though the true nature or even appearance of Matsumoto is unknown, they have constructed a massive following built from IPCs who obsessively strive to uphold their strict, rigid lifestyle. Talk and Walk states clear affiliation with multiple government and corporate organizations, particularly those with Hephaestus Industries. Matsumoto will often promote charitable foundations or corporate products found on Konyang, especially to those tuning in to their tourist-centric broadcast. When speaking in Sol Common, they take on a fast-paced and high-pitched masculine tone. They are frequently put on loudspeakers in popular tourist destinations, with recordings accompanying stylized eyeballs which track passerbys.<br />
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'''Great Blue Dot'''<br />
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Hidden somewhere in the depths of Konyang’s shallow seas is a moving, unseen broadcast station which has gone undetected since its first broadcast in 2430. It is known as the Great Blue Dot, attributed to what researchers believe to be its tremendous size and the color of its marker on sea-charts. While itself illegally broadcasts to every openly-receiving piece of hardware on the southern hemisphere of the planet, little can be gleaned of the actual broadcasts themselves. From incoherent gibberish of “swarms of wasps,” to “hives in the skies,” the outgoing material is poorly formed at best. Receiving these broadcasts is not illegal, contrarily, and the sheer number of watchful eyes bouncing back to the broadcast keeps its location perpetually hidden from local authorities. Search efforts for the source of the Great Blue Dot stopped in May of 2462, due to “excessive cost for little reward,” police officials say.<br />
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====Visual Animation====<br />
[[File:Konyang anime.png|thumb|Seasons 1-14 of BELIEVE!~, one of the flagship animations of Konyang entertainment industry. ]]<br />
Animated media is commonplace on Konyang, and chief among the many outlets that enhance its unique culture. Whereas hundreds, perhaps thousands of animated studios take up projects annually, very few make critical success. By far the most famous and successful studio, Konymation, remains a staple in everyday life, employing thousands throughout the planet in drawing, voicing and animating high budget movies and series of all kinds and genres. The industry, despite computer-aided assistance, heavily leans on IPC labor and organic oversight for its newly-animated creations. This makes it very costly, and few endeavors pay off. Some examples of those that succeeded are below.<br />
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'''Stormman'''<br />
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A very popular series created by Konymation, Stormman has been described as a staple animation by both human and IPC audiences. Aimed primarily at young adults, the action packed franchise features the masked protagonist, Stormman, harnessing the power of Konyang’s stormy and thunderous weather with his high-tech suit, battling crime and apocalyptic alien invaders alike, all while trying to lead a normal life. Eight seasons have been released so far, whereas merchandise of all sorts are widely prominent as well as lucrative. <br />
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'''Believe!~ (In the Time)'''<br />
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A hit animated series renowned for its choppy, quick action sequences led by a stoic heroine by the name of '''Marie,''' a time traveling Venusian shell IPC from the 2460’s. Targeted primarily at IPC audiences, it takes place in the pre-war “wild west” Frontier at around the early warp era. Being released in 2435, it has claimed fame as a “hit 30’s classic,” still being aired on prime broadcast stations globally in subtitled Sol Common. To organic viewers, much of the dialogue, tones or consistency is said to be lost in a muddle of incomprehensibly fast shoot-out scenes and plot twists that happen for split-seconds.<br />
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====Comics====<br />
Spearheaded by Mujigae Publishing, the planet's comic sector has seen great successes that brought paper back into the mainstream. Comic books have a huge share of the market on Konyang, and is perhaps the largest industry of its kind to exist in any civilized world in the Orion Spur. Comic genres vary from children-oriented adventures, to gritty, graphic murder mysteries for adults, all of which may incorporate elements of fantasy and superheroes. Movie and animation adaptations of Mujigae's comics are also a common practice used to boost numbers, making readers able to see their favourite stories and characters on the big screen.<br />
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'''Inspector 404/Kyung-Sun'''<br />
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[[File:Konyang comic.png|thumb|The front cover for the latest edition of I404, "Under the Shadows," featuring Kyung-Sun with superintendent Hayashi in the background.]]<br />
Since its debut in the issue ''“Phantoms of Suwon,”'' the series simply referred to as I404 is the most popular comic in the Orion Spur, and Konyang’s most profitable media franchise. The series centers around the titular '''Inspector 404,''' a shell IPC who goes by the alias of Kyung-Sun, in a bleak and highly dystopian Konyanger cityscape. While the series itself starts upon a Suwon highrise, the character would go on to travel the world in its 67 current issues. Issue #67, known as “Under the Shadows,” revolves around the Kyung-Sun going up against the same police establishment he had been serving, pitting himself against corrupt police superintendent Hayashi.<br />
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==Fashion==<br />
Being as moist as it is, one would expect the average Konyanger outfits to consist of drysuits and reflective outerwear, with raincoats and the like. This is the case in the majority of urban settings, whereas people in the villages take quite their own unique spin on their fashion choices.<br />
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Insulation from water is difficult to come by without some form of thermal insulation coming with it. This is clearly suboptimal, seeing as beating the heat is just as important as staying dry here. In their ingenuity, rural Konyangers have utilized a “miracle weave” of natural fibers acquired from the feathers of much avian wildlife planetside. Replicating the byproducts of these feathers has proven impossible, leaving only hunting to produce the necessities for the weave. Traditional villages take immense pride in their unique attire, many calling it the most important difference between them and the cities. Combining vibrant colours and utility, Konyanger fields are regularly dotted with farmers sporting colourful ponchos, robes and traditional Gat headwear. Most rural Konyanger “fashion” draws from this weave in some form - resulting in cool, waterproof, and sharp-looking outerwear resembling a poncho in most cases. More complex items such as jackets and legwear are quite expensive and marketed as luxury items for the elite, with the weave still in quite high demand.<br />
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Urban fashion on the other hand is rather detached from the realities of that of the villages. The natural, feather based fabrics are rarely found amongst the denizens of the large cities, while those who do own them are quickly singled out as either people from the countryside, or individuals of a higher class. Rainy weather still being the primary issue, city dwellers have adopted a different stance, preferring clothes of industrial origin.<br />
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In combination with normal everyday clothing items, these Konyangers have adopted a heavy use of water resistant plastics. Stemming from the first years of settlement on the planet, plastic and translucent raincoats were slowly shaped into all sorts of jackets, coats and pants, creating a more comfortable and utilitarian approach to keeping clothes dry. Slowly developing into a fashion sense, and with research on more flexible materials, plastic-based attire has culminated into being the norm. LED lights, translucency and water resistance are the staples of this trend, the youth and clothes designers taking it a step further, with holographic microprojectors being woven and fluorescent substances infused into the material, creating quite the cutting edge in fashion.<br />
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{{Navbox Konyang}}</div>The Strykerhttps://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=User:The_lancer/Sandbox_3&diff=32017User:The lancer/Sandbox 32024-02-21T14:28:03Z<p>The Stryker: </p>
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==Overview==<br />
Originally established in 2305 as a Solarian Alliance Outer Ring planet, Konyang is presently one of the more distant outposts under the Coalition of Colonies after its independence in '''2462'''. Konyang’s capital city Suwon, the largest settlement on the planet, is built upon a natural formation that defines most of Konyang's geography: islands with large interior mountains that feature lush, but soaking wet, coastal jungle regions. Konyang was initially a relatively average Outer Ring settlement intended to export water, before the discovery of mysterious, deactivated drones in 2407 led to a robotics boom occuring on the planet that lasted well into the 2450s. The Konyang of today is a planet renowned for its robotics industry, though some of its initial luster has faded in the years following its boom. Water, however, remains a key industry - the planet has a remarkably low salination level, meaning that essentially all of its water is drinkable. Konyang Solarian Common, or Konyang Common, is the most used language on the planet inside and outside of major population centers. Due to its proximity to the Coalition of Colonies planets, Coalition member planets often import water from Konyang. In major cities and universities, Tradeband can be found being spoken, though it remains rare. Speakers of the language are generally from off-planet, moving to Konyang during its robotics boom. Konyang almost completely lacks valuable minerals due to intensive mining efforts carried out by drones—whose source remains unknown—hundreds of years before it was colonized.<br />
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'''Because of the ethnic make-up of Konyang's original settlers and assimilation of immigrants into the native population during the first AI boom, human characters born on Konyang will have names and appearances consistent with the people of China, the Korean Peninsula, and Japanese Islands. Only native Konyangers or Konyang-made IPCs may select the Konyanger accent. This is enforceable by server moderators and admins.'''<br />
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[[File:Konyang flag.png| The Konyanger flag was adopted in 2462, having unofficially been used by pro-autonomy circles long before the declaration of independence. The traditional taitju represents peace and harmony as the highest values of the new state, with the color blue representing the waterways the planet is known for and yellow, their aim of prosperity. The white background represents Konyang's purity.<br />
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==History==<br />
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===Conception and Planning | 2200s - 2299===<br />
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When the United Nations proposed and eventually enforced the creation of the Alliance of Sovereign Solarian Nations, China, Korea and Japan were once more forced to band together to compete with the world for influence inside the newly found institution. Rivals such as the European Union, the Soviet Union, the Commonwealth and the United States were first in line to claim hegemonic roles, their space programs forming the core of Solarian colonization of the Inner, Middle and Outer rings over the centuries, populating them with their own peoples and sparking an unofficial race for prestige land grabs, one which the Department of Colonization was more than happy to let unfold, resulting in the extremely fast expansion of Humanity into the Orion Spur. While regional powers such as India and the Mediterranean countries began creating their own colonies on Gadpathur and Assunzione, the East Asian trio were relegated to secondary roles of supplying technology, labor and capital without any actual representation in the stars, a situation problematic for some and resented by many in the “sovereign” governments.<br />
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It was thus decided to present a plan to Solarian functionaries for a colony spearheaded by China and supported heavily by Korea and Japan, aimed at restoring the pride of the three “cousin-nations” and their position in the Alliance. Intense negotiations and technical planning amounted to years of disagreements over the name, location and allocation of responsibilities between the partners, as well as the presence of China’s Einstein Engines megacorporation, which offered to finance a great portion of the initial effort. Soon however, the advent of the Second Great Depression and the following Interstellar War in the mid-late 2200’s saw a bankrupt Alliance put a halt to any colonization projects, resulting in the plans being shelved. The war took a great toll on the core Solarian worlds, including Earth and its nations which were called to provide manpower, funds and materiel for the Solarian Navy. Federal China’s economy tanked completely under the pressure, relying on IMF bailouts and stays of payment on the salaries of its public sector, with pensionaries and students being most severely hit, resulting in massive social upheaval which would have long lasting consequences for the country’s financial hegemony in the post-war region.<br />
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As peace and relative stability returned, the Alliance found a newly independent, sizable and embittered Coalition of Colonies rival its claims in the Galactic East, calling for the presence of military garrisons and naval stations to protect the border. It was at this time that colonization projects were beginning to reemerge, with the Pacific Pact racing once more to submit a viable plan for a colony that would represent East Asia. A fatigued China could no longer bear the incredible costs it aspired to as the leader of the colonial venture before the war, giving significant leeway to the other two partners and largely retreating behind its megacorporation, Einstein Engines, which was still willing to back the endeavor. An aggressive Korean delegation largely dictated terms, giving birth to the “Konyang Project”, named after the Konyang University in which the colonial undertaking was revealed and presented to the public in 2299.<br />
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===Early Colonial Period | 2304 - 2400s===<br />
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[[File:solyang_flag.png|thumb|right|The flag of Konyang under Alliance administration.]]<br />
The plan envisioned five convoys for the establishment of four primary settlements on a strategically placed planet selected by the Solarian Navy for the support of local naval operations against any threats from the Frontier Alliance. The targeted planet was revealed to be a lush world first discovered in 2278 by a long-range scouting probe, dominated by water and possessing a breathable atmosphere, placing it in a prime position to sustain Human civilization. The quickly named “Haneunim” solar system possessed a few more bodies of secondary importance, and the first convoy was scheduled to launch on the 10th of March 2304, from the Wenchang spaceport in South China, to meet the long-distance freighters in orbit of Luna that would carry the first 5,000 colonists to Konyang. The ethnic mix-up of the colonists were equally distributed amongst the three nationalities, with all being volunteers and 646 of them under the employ of Einstein Engines.<br />
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It took the warp-propelled convoy one year to reach its destination, traversing light years of Solarian vastness before meeting the Navy squadron which would escort them to the planet, with touchdown being made on September 8th, 2305. Konyang was covered in jungles and great mountain ranges, requiring great labor from the men and women of the expedition to create the first settlement, under the direction of officers from the Department of Colonization. Two months later, Unity Station would receive the first signal passed along by the Navy, originating from beacon Number 22890/223, Designation ‘SUWON’. The foundations had been laid. In the following decades, all five convoys would come to form the basis of the “Konyang Territory”, a colony directly controlled by the Alliance and the Solarian Navy as the base of the 58th Fleet. Boosted by its status as a naval base, the abundance of freshwater and with the backing of Einstein, all three cities were realized; Suwon and Boryeong, New Hong Kong, and Aoyama, each at the start holding ethnic majorities of Koreans, Chinese and Japanese respectively.<br />
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===The Robotics Boom | 2407 - 2430s===<br />
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Despite the acceptable climate and near unlimited freshwater, the colonial government soon realized an alarming lack of mineral resources, forcing a complete reliance on external trade and supplies from the Navy for any and all industrial goods and even basic construction materials, a reality which had to be corrected as fast as possible. A planet-wide scanning expedition was organized, while “patriotic aid” was fervently being fundraised in China, Japan and Korea for nearly a whole century to cope with the colonists' increasing demands. This led to a landmark moment in the history of Konyang, when on the 21st of April 2404, mining teams dug into a collapsed tunnel outside the vicinity of Aoyama, discovering a defunct mining drone, crushed by tonnes of rock and soil. The chassis appeared broken and old, though its very presence implied the exploitation of the planet by a different civilization.<br />
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The device was hurried back in secrecy to a panel of dumbfounded colonial officials, who deemed that their corporate partners would be more suited in tracking down its origin. As such, after a quick formality bid behind closed doors, the Alliance sold off its odd piece of government property to Einstein Engines whose scientists saw it as a curious case worth pursuing. Month after month, the Terraneus Diagnostics laboratory in Aoyama kept receiving bits and pieces from similar drones recovered from abandoned, centuries-old mineshafts, culminating in the 2406 discovery of a sealed vault containing a great number of intact mining drones. The severity of this discovery was immediately apparent to the scientists. Words were had with the governor of Konyang by the local Einstein Engines representative, and it was decided to keep the drones a very closely-guarded secret - with only select Terraneus and government officials even being aware of their existence at all, let alone what was being done with them.<br />
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The Terraneus research team worked feverishly, though in secret, for months upon months. Staff were quietly shipped in from offworld in order to not alert outside observers, and the team continued to work upwards of eighty hour weeks in order to crack the drones. In mid-2407, they achieved one of the most remarkable breakthroughs in recent scientific memory by cracking the AI algorithms of the drones. Information of this moved rapidly from the local Einstein Engines office up the corporate chain and moved equally rapidly up the government's chain from provincial office to Sol itself. The information spread like wildfire, and humanity now had the secret of AI despite not truly knowing from where or who these machines came from. This was little more than a footnote to the Nralakk Federation - to them, these AI were crude and hardly approached the machines that had driven their civilization to ruin.<br />
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The robotics boom of Konyang caused a variety of benefits and harms to the previously marginal outer ring planet. The economy ballooned massively, as did its standard of living and industries. Konyang moved from a rural backwater that exported food and water to a high-tech planet that still exported basic goods, but primarily focused upon robotics. Megacorporations flocked to the planet: Einstein Engines, already present through Terraneus, rapidly secured dominance over the planet; Hephaestus Industries struggled with Einstein dominated competition before selling its factories over to local government control in 2427; and Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals, despite its skrell benefactors, purchased rights to examine the planet's biosphere from Einstein. The fact that their prosthetic limbs were originally designed on this planet has been stated to be a "happy coincidence" by its board. Due to the mass arrival of corporations, jobs were readily available - the planet was booming.<br />
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A massive migration wave of Einstein employees and their families to Aoyama made the city wrangle the spot of first in importance from the nominal capital of Suwon, to the point where the expatriate scientific community and their dependents outnumbered the local Japanese original colonists. The city quickly became known to Humanity as “Point Verdant”, the name assigned to the Terraneus Diagnostics laboratory in Aoyama, while the parent countries on Earth invested billions to capitalize on the success of their colonial project, to lift the planet into a modern world and reap the public relations benefits of their colony achieving a breakthrough in artificial intelligence.<br />
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The rapid expansion of Konyang's industries and cities had overtaxed the limited bureaucracy on the planet to the breaking point, and architects were in short supply. Urban planning on Konyang is estimated to be some of the worst in Alliance space outside of New Hai Phong as a result, with cities such as Point Verdant often having haphazard roads running through them and districts smashed together with no apparent rhyme or reason - a legacy of corporate jockeying for areas of interest, and the municipal corruption that came with it. There are countryside facilities originally utilized for drone research and retrieval that have, in recent years, fallen into disuse and disarray. Such facilities often dot the mountains and foothills of Konyang, slowly being overtaken by nature - sometimes with unfortunate results when these facilities have been improperly stripped of dangerous materials. The environment also suffered in areas where drones were found - jungles were cut or burnt away by corporations in order to get at the precious drones below, prefab buildings were orbitally dropped and erected, and landing zones were cut into the landscape itself.<br />
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The stormy tidal waves so infamous for tormenting the early colonists were tamed through the building of sea walls, a comprehensive road network linked the remote villages with the urban centers, and the city of Ganzaodeng was raised from the rocky desert. The Konyanger conglomerate PACHROM would mark the rise of the first native Chaebols, building shipyards, dams, hydroelectric plants and the first space fleet capable of ferrying enormous capacities of water across interstellar systems.<br />
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===The Positronic Integration | 2410s===<br />
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Soon enough, IPCs entered production on the planet, making Konyang one of the first places to embrace the positronic revolution. The limited resources saw higher prices, lessening the availability of domestically produced frames. Furthermore, the still rudimentary waterproofing technologies meant that IPCs could not work for long hours without shelter, ensuring that human jobs would remain safe from automation. When in the rest of Sol IPCs were produced en-masse for labor, Konyanger IPCs were more integrated in white-collar employment and indoors service-related work. Meanwhile, a growing media culture based on animation combined with the Konyanger recycle-friendly attitude, giving newer generations a fresh look on positronic intelligence, one that valued them as people rather than a disposable resource. The lack of widespread automation never brought the anti-synthetic sentiment so common in the rest of Sol, and IPCs in time became a unique cultural phenomenon in the colony’s urban centers.<br />
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Solarian laws governing the relations between IPCs and mankind were nominally enforced on Konyang, barring synthetics from gaining their own freedom, a fact which remained a thorn between the more liberal, younger Konyangers and the older generations. Einstein Engines allied with the Solarian governorship to press for the continuing status of Konyang as a colony, preventing elections and thus any liberal political influence from threatening the company’s grip on its synthetic workforce. This however, did not prevent Konyanger society to further integrate IPCs, even if the concept of universal citizenship for all synthetics was still far from publicly accepted. Aoyama was most receptive to the positronics, as a center of research and culture, with IPCs welcomed in people’s houses, treated like family and celebrated in festivals and even religious ceremonies. Suwon sentiment remained ambivalent, though many Solarian officials and naval officers expressed most severe concerns, in many cases pressing for crackdowns and questioning the morals of Konyanger citizens. The denizens of New Hong Kong and Ganzaodeng on the other hand, were most unhappy, with the powerful Chinese factory and shipyard labor unions remaining vocally opposed to IPC rights in the workplace, owing to their ties with the wider Solarian unions.<br />
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The profound effects of the emergence of this positronic culture were soon felt across the planet, change being heralded through a wave of demonstrations in mid to late 2412. High school and university students in Aoyama took to the streets to call for synthetic rights, in one of the few instances of pro-IPC disturbances on Solarian soil. In particular, the students called for the immediate emancipation of owned synthetics, marching from the main First Avenue down to the Governor's House and being joined by crowds of people and IPCs alike. The Aoyama Constabulary alongside Terraneus security forces were ordered to put a swift end to the march, resulting in the first major incident since the founding of the colony. Over 400 student injuries were recorded, the crowds responding with rocks and branches to the authorities’ tear gas and water cannons. 247 arrests were made that day, sparking additional outrage in the student movement as the ringleaders were tried as adults and given lengthy prison sentences. Smaller incidents were also noted in Suwon and Boryeong, marking 2412 as a year of upheaval and social change, laying the foundations for full IPC citizenship.<br />
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===Late Colonial Period | 2410s - 2440s===<br />
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As Konyang left behind the troubled ’10s and social peace returned through decrees permitting local city authorities to afford certain permissions for IPCs. This followed the final robotics' boom peak in the 2430s, seeing the planet’s GDP growth reach new levels. The colony’s industrial potential skyrocketed, with hundreds of hydroelectric dams, sea walls and shipyards creating thousands of new jobs in New Hong Kong, the new industrial core of Konyang. Labour relations shifted dramatically, as the new Hephaestus-pioneered industrial chassis enabled IPCs to work in the most difficult of conditions, sidelining and driving off the all powerful Gwongfu labor unions, with human employees forced into the urban centers and Ganzaodeng, contributing to a skyrocketing of the local IPC population in the prefecture.<br />
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Suwon saw a significant rise in business activity with the outside world, emboldening private ventures to the neighboring Frontier Alliance, bringing in massive profits from moss and entertainment exports. The animation industry reached new heights, with hundreds of new studios producing pioneering and high quality work, including classics like “One Day in My Life” and “Tomonomimi”, two of the most highly acclaimed works of media in recent Solarian memory. The entertainment sector brought new life to the Konyanger tourism industry as well, with more and more people rediscovering the distant hidden gem tucked deep in the fringes of the Alliance. The Suwon Stock Exchange was listed for the first time in the Chicago Financial Review, Sol’s most coveted investment periodical, as “Upcoming”, leading to billions of credits flowing in the country from abroad.<br />
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New chaebol conglomerates emerged, replacing even Einstein products with widely successful “Local, Cheaper and Better” campaigns. While Gwok Foods was making headlines in 2439 as the most successful Konyanger “IPC-inspired” exporter by yearly gross tonnage, the Ayame Motor Corporation created the first “completely Konyanger” 2-seat automobile designed for the cramped roads of Suwon and Point Verdant, becoming an instant hit. The Boryeong based Mujigae Publishing brought comics back into the youth’s hands, and Konymation had expanded to control cinemas, movie production studios, theme parks and restaurant chains in its ever expanding media empire.<br />
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===Independence and Present Day | 2462 - Present===<br />
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The Mars Violet Dawn catastrophe of 2462 signaled an era of widespread uncertainty and energy insecurity for the entirety of the Sol Alliance, with the Spur-wide phoron crisis exacerbating the situation for the Alliance’s Middle and especially Outer Ring colonies. A Konyanger recession in the late 2450s had already stretched the colonial government thin, with riots over the cost of living and unemployment in New Hong Kong and Suwon making national news for years on end. As the shaken corporations entered discussions on how they would survive the ever increasing phoron costs, it was made clear to everyone that the Alliance could not, and would not fund the refitting of the corporate fleets with the new Suzuki-Zhang Hammer Drive engine, threatening the complete cutoff of Konyang from outer space should the local Bluespace gate fail. Only a few Einstein vessels and the 58th Fleet stationed on the planet remained as the only reliable link between Konyang and the Spur.<br />
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The shortage soon hit the domestic market, leading to dangerous price increases for even the most essential of supplies. The average Konyanger saw their purchasing power plummet, as salaries remained stagnant in the face of a decreasing supply. The colonial Governor Hyun Kyung-Ho, turned to the only emergency option left, Earth. It was not the first time that Patriotic Aid was raised in China, Korea and Japan, though this time it proved most underwhelming. As the call for help fell on ears of men that could not even help their own economies, the trophy colony had to be abandoned to its own devices, with many in the East Asian public accusing Konyangers of greed and forgetting them in their apogee of financial success. With this last link to the past cut off, the question and possibility of independence soon started circling.<br />
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There was no time for serious debate however, with the Alliance being plunged into rebellion and collapse. On November 12, the 58th Fleet hastily departed Konyang, declaring a state of emergency in the system and abandoning the colonial government to its fate. Only elements of the Solarian Army and the Constabularies remained to maintain order, themselves being composed almost entirely of local Konyanger enlisted. The situation immediately turned into unrest, as public sentiment against the ineptitude of the Alliance boiled over into the streets. Massive student protests saw the storming of public buildings and central plazas in every major town and city, demanding a sharp reduction to the cost of living, IPC emancipation and a barring of the 58th Fleet from returning. Government reaction was mild, limited to the prevention of damages and protection of private property. Hyun Kyung-Ho was otherwise sympathetic to the students’ cause, sparking outrage within groups of Alliance-minded Army officers and Einstein corporate elites, who sought to prevent any secession of Konyang.<br />
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Thus, on November 15 2462, elements of the Army garrison under Lieutenant General Jiang Hongbing mobilized against the wishes of the Governor, taking up key positions in Suwon and Point Verdant. The mutinous 8th Sappers infiltrated the historic SUWON beacon telecommunications complex, preparing the country for a silent coup and preventing any long range communications with Sol. Jiang Hongbing, inspired by actions of mutinous admirals, took it upon himself to restore Konyang to the Alliance by marching the Army into the streets. While some of the formations under his command were willing to participate, the vast majority refused to bear arms against the Konyanger Governor or the student movements. In the following day, an internal power struggle saw many officers confined to their quarters, with Army hardliners being arrested, chased off or even assaulted in their own barracks as a loyalist armored brigade blocked access to the Governor’s House, preventing Hongbing’s men from touching Hyun Kyung-Ho.<br />
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With the coup’s inglorious end visible, the Governor’s staff were racing into negotiations with diplomatic officers from Coalition of Colonies still in the country for an express accession into the Coalition, following Konyang’s independence. Jiang Hongbing’s associates surrendered, himself fleeing into the thick jungles of Boryeong Prefecture, declaring a patriotic struggle in the Alliance’s name before soon being betrayed and confined at the 58th base’s Brig. On November 24 2462, telecommunications were restored, and Konyanger independence was broadcast to the world. The country’s preliminary accession into the Coalition was soon after announced, turning a new leaf in Konyang’s history. While the news was received with muted reaction from a confused Alliance government with more pressing matters to handle, the secession of Konyang was a huge blow to the three parent countries. After Governor Hyun Kyung-Ho assembled the nation’s intellectuals, economic and political figures, it was decided that he would remain in place as independent Konyang’s first Governor to organize free elections and set up the foundations for a democratic state.<br />
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Now, as a free Konyang comes out to the world stage, strong government initiative has seen its large synthetic factories nationalized, rapidly introducing legislation to establish the relationship with Einstein Engines. While they still are the dominating megacorporation on the planet, Einstein has lost most of its heavy industry, though still retaining the important research facilities around the vaults, as well as a good portion of software and positronic brain creation.<br />
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==Location and Environment==<br />
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===The Haneunim System===<br />
The Haneunim System, centered around the yellow star it is named for, Haneunim, contains four major celestial bodies, including the planet of Konyang. The whole system bears evidence of ancient mining operations, missing an asteroid belt to separate the inner and outer system with what few rocks remain being mostly picked clean of minerals. The innermost planet is known as Huozhu and remains practically inaccessible due to the scorching heat of Haneunim. Following it is Hwanung , an insignificant dwarf planet believed to have maintained a thin arid atmosphere before most of its mass was artificially stripped away. The third planet in the System is Konyang, accompanied by its lifeless moon of Qixi. Shiranui, a blue gas giant with a ring, is the outermost planet from Haneunim. An asteroid belt, far to the outskirts and composed mostly of ice, forms a ring around the entire system, although this remains largely unexploited by both the Konyanger government and local corporations. It is instead the stomping ground of both refugees fleeing the Sol Wildlands, and the pirates that seek to prey on them.<br />
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===Geography===<br />
[[File:Konyang_map_sat.png|A geographic map of Konyang, showcasing the planet's different biomes. |thumb|800px]]<br />
Primarily a tropical world smaller than Earth, Konyang boasts a mean radius of 5,111 kilometers. Freshwater oceans cover upwards of 88% of the planet’s surface. These oceans also grant Konyang its signature green color when viewed from orbit, in no small part thanks to the abundant presence of moss in the planet’s waterways. The planet’s continents are classified by its larger landmasses and island chains, although given the tides, the planet remains studded with small island chains and archipelagos that ebb and flow with the season. Two small ice caps exist on Konyang where the planet experiences a miniscule amount of snowfall and cold climates. The Konyanger terrain is principally mountainous, with large ranges covering vast areas of the planet’s landmasses. The tallest peak belongs to Mount Sansin, the highest mountain standing at a record 13.890 meters above sea level, its base forming an island of its own. Flanking the mountains are usually lush jungles, present in almost every island and continent in varying densities. This means that settlements have to be located in clearings adjacent to the coastline, on terrain with relatively even elevation. The largest and most dense jungle is located in Bukupo, an island in the heart of the Boryeong Prefecture. The largest landmass on the planet is Cheomseongtang, home of the Suwon prefecture and the nation’s capital. Other notable landmasses are the Oshima islands, hosting the largest mountain ranges, as well as the Yu islands, home of the only biome that could be described as a desert. New Hokkaido is the largest northernmost territory, renowned for its biodiversity and frosty tundra due to its proximity to the planet’s pole, as well as a unique lack of jungles. It is administered directly by the Government of Konyang, being the site of many scientific expeditions and military exercises, only boasting a population of a few hundred people.<br />
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===Environment===<br />
[[File:Konyang.png|An image of Konyang, displaying mossy oceans and algae-covered water as the face of the planet. |thumb]]<br />
Konyang features a highly atypical environment for a habitable planet: it is entirely freshwater. The surface of the planet is primarily oceans, with estimates placing upwards of 88% of the planet as covered in water. What is not under the sea are the islands of Konyang, where the vast majority of its population lives. These islands follow a general pattern: a small coastal area and a large mountain range ringing the island. The freshwater oceans of Konyang feature a remarkable diverse biosphere, and Konyang underwater flora, such as freshwater moss, is often used in the planet's native dishes and exported offworld, as far afield as Sol and Tau Ceti. Konyang is defined by two seasons: wet, lasting nine months, and dry, lasting three months.<br />
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The coastal regions of Konyang represent the smallest regions of its islands, but contain upwards of 90% of the planet's population. Often called the "coastal jungles" of Konyang, these areas are extremely wet - flooding is an issue in many areas, though the bulk of populated and urban areas are protected by extensive flood protection infrastructure, primarily lengthy complexes of walls. Coastal areas feature a wealth of plant and animal life, both of which have been put under stress by the rapid expansion of Konyang's cities.<br />
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Although Konyang’s coastal waters are often tinted green from moss, even more so than its oceans, harvesting and cleanup efforts along the coasts of the main and important islands have resulted in some sections of the planet appearing blue. These areas are often exploited for settlements and as tourist destinations for their scenic looks, while dedicated seaweed and algae farms dot the planet, providing an income for local villages and traditional producers. The most famous Konyanger food exporter, Go-Go Gwok!, has the largest involvement in the moss and seaweed industry.<br />
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The inland mountain ranges of Konyang can be up to several kilometers in height in some areas, with smaller foothills featuring some rare settlements leading up to them. These ranges, which lack valuable minerals completely due to Glorsh-era mining, are the reason for Konyang's jungles - they form an effective rain shadow. Some mountains have what is assumed to be collapsed mines in them, deactivated drones scattered throughout.<br />
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A phenomenon unique to the easternmost Yu islands of the Ganzaodeng prefecture, inland deserts are created due to the rain shadow caused by the surrounding mountain ranges. These are the least populated areas of the planet. Extraordinarily dry, little grows or lives in these environments. Rare Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals facilities can be found in this area, taking advantage of the isolation and relatively sterile environment that the inland deserts offer.<br />
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Lastly, the oceans of Konyang are regularly stormy, the large waves being harnessed for their energy in electricity production at numerous such outposts, scattered throughout the unpopulated islets in the farthest and most secluded areas.<br />
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===Flora and Fauna===<br />
Wildlife on Konyang is a peculiar mix of its original environment and the thousands of invasive species introduced by Human colonization. Species introduced in the initial colonization of the planet include huge herbivores and peaceful, if ecologically destructive, wildlife. Additionally, the large oceans are host to an uncountable number of species of fish, crustaceans and aquatic molluscs, with many being unique to their region of origin. Flora on Konyang is among its most famed aspects, spearheaded by the mossy shores and overgrowth which covers the vast majority of its visible terrain. All plant life which survives on Konyang must survive the extremely damp environment, and as such either thrives in the water, or is capable of moving away from it. Konyang's waters are famously covered in green moss and seaweed, giving it its signature color when viewed from orbit.<br />
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Some examples of unique flora and fauna are:<br />
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'''Shelfers'''<br />
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In the marsh and lowlands of Konyang's algae coasts resides an invasive species of large omnivores known as '''Shelfers.''' These are gluttonous moss-feasting beasts, with a distinct six-legged and bloated appearance. They are excellent swimmers, owed to webbed joints and a wedge shaped, slick head. From this, it uses a set of large protruding teeth to scrape moss and undersea growths. This creature is endangered, and displayed as a national animal thanks to its unique appearance. Originally a danger to unprepared colonization, these gained a reputation for its tendency to attack colonists.<br />
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These were first encountered by colonists who had shipped wildlife to and from Arusha, where escaped subjects managed to reproduce- over the years becoming a cultural icon due to their miraculous beneficial place they have in Konyang's ecosystem.<br />
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'''Konyanger Jeweler Cockatoo'''<br />
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Known for its affinity to decorate its nesting grounds with surface-level pearls and gems of all sorts is an opportunistic carnivore, the '''Jeweler Cockatoo.''' This large avian is an offshoot of the Earth parrot, bred originally to “liven the landscape” of Konyang’s dreary inner mountainous lands. Eventually, with the assistance of high-level genetic modification, they grew to giant proportions whilst maintaining the health and lifestyle of a standard - ''if highly dangerous'' - parrot. <br />
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Where small patches of forest and barrens clash, these birds thrive and craft beautiful roosts in the relative safety of open fields. In these fields, diminutive predators avoid the large avian’s glare (or don’t, and are frequently preyed upon.) The Jeweler Cockatoo possesses two sharp talons on one digit of each of its feet, and a short - but unbelievably sharp beak, refined further by its tendency to dig. The wingspan of these birds can grow up to fifteen feet.<br />
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The Jeweler Cockatoo is the national bird of Konyang, with many stylized imagery depicting the bird in some shape or form.<br />
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'''Glittering Konyang Moss'''<br />
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Found in vast plains of coastal territories in excess is the overflowing, yet precious resource of '''Konyang moss.''' One of its primary exports, this barely-tapped commodity retains a huge capacity to feed Konyang’s already sturdy ecosystem, and the billions which reside upon it, and more to export. The evolutionary process which grew this mystical, shimmering moss is a mystery, however its luster and fields of green it generates has a wonderful impact on sustaining Konyang’s moist, overgrown and greenery-rich habitat. <br />
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Konyang moss is pivotal to its moving industries, and even after the robotics boom, it remains a stable source of incoming development for the since-burgeoning planet. The moss’ nutritional properties have been highly studied in recent decades. Its rapid pace of growth is exclusive to Konyang’s ecological circumstances, with everything from subterranean heat, to the algae present in its beautiful green seas factoring in.<br />
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==Economy==<br />
While young, the nation of Konyang boasts a powerful regional economy built upon decades of trade with both the Alliance and various Coalition partners. A developed country, Konyang manages to surpass its near total lack of ore with robust exports of foodstuff and energy, a strong shipping industry and a powerful robotics sector.<br />
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===Raw Materials===<br />
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[[File:Konyang dam.png|thumb|Dams and sea walls are a common sight on Konyang, used to protect cities and population centres from floods and tsunamis, as well as to exploit the violent waves for electricity.]]<br />
Konyang's freshwater oceans were perhaps the largest boon to the starting colonists, and continues to play a substantial role behind the planet's exports. Fishing provides for a large aspect of the domestic economy, with millions of fishing boats and trawlers scouring the shores and oceans for all kinds of fish, crustaceans and other aquatic creatures, of which a complete list doesn't exist. Such is the biodiversity in Konyang's waters, that each region has its own fish markets which serve clients all over the planet and the Spur. Besides fishing, Konyang's biggest aquatic produce in terms of volume belongs to its enormous seaweed and moss harvesting industries. Entire ships are purpose-built for collecting wild greenery which floats on the high seas and the bays of Konyang, bringing in billions in offworld exports and domestic sales. The harvesting of moss is not exclusive to the sea and the aquatic farms either, as many edible varieties are collected inland, both in the planet's jungles and mountain ranges. Konyanger moss is Spur-renowned thanks to powerful marketing campaigns and the spread of the planet's cuisine.<br />
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With tremendously stormy wet seasons lasting most of the year, it is no surprise that Konyanger corporations have attempted and managed to harness the energy of the wind, waves and waters of the planet. Electricity is generated through a network of dams, hydroelectric plants, wave power stations and tidal power stations, all dotted across the vast shores and oceans of Konyang. The electricity produced is then either stored in super capacitors, or is directly wired inland through thick underwater cables, catering to the needs of virtually every power grid on the globe. Much of it is also transported on board space freighters lined with rows of large batteries, ready to make the journey to Alliance and Coalition worlds as part of the lucrative electricity export industry.<br />
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Lastly, Konyang excells in the export of water and timber. The continent-spanning untouched jungles provide an excellent source of wood for foreign markets as well as domestic construction, of which there is very heavy use in lieu of metal structures. The freshwater is also extremely easy to chemically filter, skipping any desalination process before being bottled or shipped as-is on board of one of many of Konyang's water barges; large hollow space vessels with tankers and pools for water storage.<br />
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===Maritime Shipping===<br />
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Surface shipping is another one of the main forces behind Konyang's domestic market economy, and an inseparable part of the nation's maritime culture. The docks and shipyards of New Hong Kong are the beating heart of the sector, which provides employment to more than 20% of the entire planet's population. Entire towns were formed and dedicated to housing the laborers and their families close to the coast, and many islands subsist entirely off of seamen's salaries and work at nearby electricity stations. Surface shipping, while slower, is a lot more economical for planetary moving of goods across the continents and islands of Konyang, being preferred to airlifting or orbital shuttling. Aside from the creation of jobs and the transportation of goods, Konyang's shipping industry produces excellent sailors who can rival those of planets such as Europa, many of whom eventually transition to space.<br />
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===Robotics and Services===<br />
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Ever since the robotics boom, Konyang has become a major player in the export and development of IPCs and everything surrounding them. Each year, the most cutting edge technologies catered to the improvement of the life of synthetics are released by Konyanger software companies, often to critical acclaim. This is because of the the substantial positronic population, free and eager to spend on such innovations that allow them to experience the world in a more human-like fashion. When it comes to the export of IPCs, Einstein Engines remains the prime manufacturer of chassis and positronic brains, which are shipped abroad without being activated. The practice, while putting Konyang on the map as one of the big regional producers of synthetics, is a hotly contested area between deeply entrenched corporate interests and an increasingly politically aware IPC populace. Non-positronic robotics are a separate, but once significant part of the economy, with Konyang having hoeld high places in the spur leaderboards for the making of robots, mechs, pAIs and automated systems. This sector however, took a major hit as the robotics boom slowly deflated, leaving behind abandoned industrial complexes and derelict factories.<br />
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The nation's service sector has to be one of the biggest ones, contributing a sizeable portion of the country's Gross Domestic Product. Many of the companies listed on the Suwon Stock Exchange are everything from financial consultation firms, to insurance agencies, housed in every majpr city's financial district. Skyscrapers and office complexes in downtown Suwon, Point Verdant and New Hong Kong are a daily reminder of the office life millions of Konyangers live, and many parents dream of their child being able to one day find employment in a top law firm or such. While mostly concentrated in the domestic market, many of these companies have expanded their services abroad, building a reputation of Konyanger reliability and impeccable work.<br />
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===Konyanger Corporations===<br />
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In terms of the traditional megacorporations, the undoubted hegemon remains Einstein Engines, entrenched in the planet's life since the beginning of Konyang's colonization. The megacorporation owns a number of subsidiaries on the planet in many different sectors, most notably, Terraneus Diagnostics, which regularly bankrolls and invests in government initiatives in exchange for their continuous presence. It retains the original research facilities and control over the vaults, even if IPC production and exports are now handled by the Konyang Robotics Corporation, a public company in which Einstein controls a 49% stake. The Terraneus facilities on the planet mainly handle shell research and positronic brain production for export to the Coalition, while they occasionally butt heads with Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals in the realm of IPC research. Zeng-Hu has the second-largest megacorporate presence, mainly in biosphere research and sales of pharmaceuticals. Despite this, local conglomerates generally dominate the country’s financial sector, commanding the government’s cooperation and good graces in order to keep a stable economy. Upon achieving independence, Konyang has managed to maintain a strong presence of homegrown corporations in the fields of agriculture, media, energy and consumer goods.<br />
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'''PACHROM'''<br />
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A chemical and engineering corporation, PACHROM builds, maintains and manages eighty percent of all private dams, hydroelectric plants and seawalls on Konyang, as well as engaging in the field of chemicals and plastics production. Headed by Park Moon-soo, the business mogul is vying for influence with the government as indispensable to the nation’s energy output and defence against floods and natural disasters, making the “Pachrom Parks” one of the richest and most powerful business dynasties on the planet. Headquartered in central Suwon, the bulk of PACHROM’s operations are located in diasporic, uninhabited islands in the middle of the world’s oceans, where hundreds of organic and synthetic workmen toil daily to run the water powered electricity plants in extremely dangerous conditions.<br />
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The company’s notorious reputation for neglecting the safety of its employees and the environmental disregard for waste disposal from its plastics factories has been a big stain the Parks have struggled to wash off. While their ties to both the Alliance administration and the Konyang government have proven instrumental in their ability to dodge damning legal action, demonstrations of public outcry are a common feature in and around the street opposite the PACHROM office complex. To counter this, public relations campaigns are a constant focus, with tens of millions being spent in portraying them in a positive light. Charities are a large part of the Park family’s social presence, sponsoring public works and offering scholarships mainly in the Boryeong and New Hong Kong prefectures, where the majority of employees originate.<br />
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Often finding itself without funds from Unity Station, the colonial administration would commission PACHROM in the form of lucrative contracts for the construction of dams and power stations, allowing the utilisation of synthetics and IPC for the dangerous labour required. Due to society’s favourable opinion towards positronic intelligence, the multitude of cases of IPC fatalities would be swept under the rug with government assistance, creating a culture of tolerance towards lacklustre safety features and general disregard. Today, PACHROM’s future remains uncertain as the newly independent state of Konyang wishes tends to distance itself from its shaky past, a fact indicated by the recent awarding of the Kaneyama nuclear plant to the public company GON-ENE.<br />
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'''Gwok Group'''<br />
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Founded in the early 2410s with the name Hyeonsang Foods, the precursor to today’s multinational food conglomerate was the first attempt at commercialising Konyang’s seaweed and moss both for export and internal consumption. Initially finding limited success due to an overly competitive local market and foreign consumers' reluctance to the Konyanger novelty, the company's defining moment arrived during the robotics boom, launching them from mediocrity into the billion credit business stage.<br />
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As Einstein Engines staff poured into Point Verdant, Hyeonsang secured a contract from the megacorporation's local branch for providing meals and miscellaneous catering to workers and research staff. The once alienated Einstein employees would soon come around, praising the brand for its flavourful seasoning and convenience, eventually spreading the word to Einstein facilities and back home. By the late 40s, Hyeonsang was on the track of significant financial success, having secured a large foothold in the foreign dominated central districts of Point Verdant.<br />
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Rebranding into the more consumer friendly “Gwok” name in 2452, the company’s reputation abroad led to the opening of regional branches in the Solarian middle and core worlds, generating an increasingly massive amount of income, used for an aggressive takeover of the local Konyanger market. By buying off competitors, monopolising the moss and seaweed industry and introducing new marketing, Gwok’s domestic success was soon guaranteed as the primary supplier of supermarkets. In 2454 the IPC Gwok-0783, until then a senior executive and the face of the company as the main influencer of the rebrand, assumed direct control as CEO of the conglomerate thus becoming the first IPC in charge of a billion credit corporation in Sol space. The following years would see the consolidation of all affiliated assets and filial companies under an umbrella Gwok Group, topping the charts and establishing a farming, food and restaurant chain empire.<br />
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'''Konymation'''<br />
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Konymation represents the peak of the Konyanger animated media scene, being by far the most successful and most well known studio in the country, with a Spur-wide fame. It arose in the early days of the robotics boom, creating a resurgency of animations for both children and adults. While the industry was almost non-existent and cheap Solarian cartoons were the norm, a group of inspired artists came together to animate and direct the first feature-length production from Konyang, using native voice actors and a brand new artstyle of their own. The result was "One Day in my Life", a slice of life film following the daily routine of an IPC secretary in a human-dominated world, becoming an instant hit with both domestic and foreign audiences. Since then, Konymation rose to become the largest studio of quality animations, creating films and series for all ages and of all genres. Such was the success, that any animated pieces from Konyang have passed into the public consciousness simply as "Konymations", referred to as such in both the planet and abroad. Since their foundation, the studio has developed into a media conglomerate, buying out holoscreen channels, online platforms, news networks and more.<br />
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'''Mujigae Publishing'''<br />
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The biggest publishing house, Mujigae is to the comic book industry what Konymation is to animation. Having created thousands of interesting and touching comic series, Mujigae is credited with bringing paper back into the hands of millions of Konyangers, in an age where digital platforms have become the default for nearly everything in life. Many of Mujigae's works find great demand abroad as well as at home, with the company being known for their efforts to constantly seek out and recruit new artists with fresh ideas. A plethora of published series often find themselves being adapted into the holoscreen in lucrative partnerships with Konymation, as well as the other way around. Additionally, Mujigae's philanthropic work cannot go unmentioned; millions of credits have found their way to various charities on Konyang, primarily those regarding the children, the money drawn from art festivals and comicons that are hosted annually, often with the participation of the Ministry of Culture. <br />
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'''Konyang Robotics Corporation'''<br />
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The Konyang Robotics Corporation, or KRC as is more commonly known, is the country's largest government-controlled company centered around the manufacture, maintenance and welfare of the nation's positronic population. Borrowing heavily from Einstein know-how and infrastructure, it originated from the nationalization of Einstein and Terraneus IPC factories, with the majority of their employees swapping over to a government payroll. Einstein Engines controls 49% of the shares of the company, lending it tremendous behind-the-scenes influence on Konyang's synthetic population.<br />
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The primary function of the KRC is the production, storage and activation of IPC citizens. A very politically and socially sensitive topic, great care is placed by the government through the Ministry of Health and Positronic Affairs to meticulously calculate and order the amount of yearly activations, so as to maintain the Human-IPC ratio and meet the demands of the job market. To that effect, the KRC also acts as a sort of "school" for the newly activated IPC citizens, with special orientation camps where synthetics are taught about Konyanger society before released to the world.<br />
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Furthermore, the KRC acts as the primary health provider for Konyanger IPCs, with clinics and hospitals situated in every town and city, as well as strategically placed in certain villages in the countryside. Thousands of roboticists, engineers and software technicians are employed by the KRC to act as the equivalents of surgeons, physicians, nurses and paramedics for the IPC population, who are afforded universal healthcare through the KRC. Appointment times are dependent on location and the capacity of the clinic or hospital, with many in more remote areas having to wait months for limb replacements and other, more heavy duty needs that cannot be met by their local KRC center.<br />
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'''GON-ENE'''<br />
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GON-ENE is a newly formed, state-controlled energy utilities company, created following the announcement of the Kaneyama Nuclear Power Plant. Perceived as a direct competitor to PACHROM, GON-ENE has been planned to expand into hydroelectric and wave power, giving the government a greater control of the nation's power grid and cutting back reliance on privately-owned sector, though complete autarky is off the table for at least many decades.<br />
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==Government==<br />
''Main Article: [[Konyanger Government and Politics#Government|Konyanger Government]]''<br />
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Konyang is organized as a unitary semi-parliamentary republic headed by a President, the former colonial governor Hyun Kyung-Ho being elected to the position after independence. The Prime Minister is elected by the citizenry every four years, and is the leader of the governing party in the Parliament of Konyang. The current Prime Minister is Myeong Myung-Dae.<br />
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Planetary politics are found on both a national and prefectural level, with every party running in local and national elections. Polarization is fairly limited, the vast majority of Konyangers rejecting the extreme views put forward by radical political movements in the country that tend to be marginalized. IPC politicians do exist and are found in every major party, though most can be seen sitting with the National Party of Konyang.<br />
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===Military===<br />
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[[File:Marine.png|thumb|right|An IPC Konyanger Naval Infantryman in full gear.]]<br />
Konyang’s military, also known as the Konyang Armed Forces, was first formed shortly after the colony’s independence from personnel of the former Solarian garrison. As a result, it carries a lot of the traditions of the Solarian Armed Forces. Bolstered by conscription laws requiring both organic and synthetic citizens one year of mandatory service, the KAF possesses Army, Navy and Aerospace branches. IPCs are actively recruited and accepted into the military, forming both their own and deployed in mixed units. This segregation is justified by the government as based solely on the differentiating capabilities, logistical needs and skills between man and machine.<br />
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That claim does hold true to an extent, with IPCs taking a more active role in special forces formations, dealing with operations requiring levels of precision and focus that artificial intelligence can easily provide. A famous example is the army’s Mechatronic Corps, an elite unit utilising large, leftover battle mechs retrofitted for a pair of pilots. Such a force is unique in the Coalition, and is often used abroad in operations under broader CoC military command. Mixed infantry units of conscripts do exist, fielded in jungle patrol tasks or assigned garrison duty.<br />
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Notably for a 25th century military, the Navy maintains a very large aquatic force which it uses to patrol the vast oceans of the planet. Regularly described as more of a coast guard than a military arm, it is more geared for domestic policing than combat, consisting mostly of ships acting as launching points for many smaller, coast guard type vessels that patrol the vast expanse of the planet’s waterways and launch military aircraft. Nevertheless, it provides important services with its multiple telecommunication, radar and island outposts, providing crucial meteorological information for everyday seafaring and flood prevention on a planet where storms and extreme weather are the norm.<br />
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The Konyang Aerospace Forces perform both atmospheric and orbital operations with their doctrine clearly influenced by former Solarian officers within their ranks. Their fleet consist of obsolete vessels donated by Coalition planets, partially brought up to a modern standard by the planet’s technology and manufacturing sector. In 2465, the KASF’s main tasks include protecting the system from pirates and policing the large influx of refugees from the Human Wildlands, regularly pushing them to other planets within the Coalition as per Konyang’s strict migration laws.<br />
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===National Police===<br />
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[[File:Konyanger Police Ranks.png|thumb|In order to organize the National Police and smooth cooperation between prefectures, a unified rank structure was adopted shortly after its formation.]]<br />
Despite its federal nature, the main law enforcement agency on the planet is the National Police, formed after Konyang’s independence from the merging of a number of local and specialised agencies under the then Solarian authority. One major change since then has been the introduction of synthetic officers in all positions and ranks, while also creating special divisions suited best for them. Police gear remains rather antiquated for the era, the force still using old Solarian equipment and stocks from the colonial garrison, meaning that much of the tactics and thinking remain unchanged. Considered tame by Alliance standards, the National Police places an emphasis on preventative policing, building rapport with local communities, and relying on a sense of civic duty from the populace to perform its duties. Despite this, the National Police has nonetheless received criticism for occasional incidents of corruption and brutality, mostly against synthetic citizens. This is more common in remote departments and conservative prefectures, where the sudden inclusiveness of synthetic officers with equal pay and opportunities is seen as a threat. Such incidents aside, government efforts for the modernisation of the National Police are ongoing.<br />
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The police is subject to the Ministry of Public Safety in Suwon and is organised at the national level, with local departments answering to the assigned hierarchy in their prefecture. Special divisions are deployed to deal with various policing duties, their size ranging from a whole new branch to Special Robotics detachments specialising in detainment of volatile synthetic suspects. The largest of these subdivisions and arguably the most important, the Coast Guard is the maritime arm of the National Police, operating a fleet of shore and sea patrol vessels in their mission to enforce the law at the huge array of islands and in Konyang’s waters. As the planet is surrounded by oceans, the Coast Guard has proven itself essential to the battle against smuggling and piracy while also assuming search and rescue duties during flooding, tsunamis and other catastrophes. The National Police has also gained Coalition-wide acclaim for its Special Robotics Division - a task force known for its expertise in detaining IPC without causing permanent damage.<br />
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==Culture==<br />
''Main article: [[Konyanger_Culture_and_Demographics|Konyanger Culture]]''<br />
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Konyang’s culture has been shaped by its East Asian Earther heritage, unique status as a colony with little to no resources, and as the birthplace of positronics. Konyanger society is often described as closed-off, with many unspoken social norms that vary from prefecture to prefecture. Key social norms that are shared in Konyang’s culture are Harmony, Reciprocity, and Face. Often derided as “meekness”, Harmony refers to enforcing unity and conformity within society. The specific manifestations vary from prefecture to prefecture, but in general, individuals who disrupt a sense of peace can face social ostracization. For instance, explicit disagreement such as using the word “no” is considered impolite, and a non-answer is often far more acceptable. Harmony also refers to a person’s social role; respect should be shown to people of a higher status, usually along traditional lines such as age, profession, and experience.<br />
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===Media===<br />
''Main article: [[Konyanger_Culture_and_Demographics#Media|Media]]''<br />
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Public media in Konyang is a powerful industry, and as broad as it may seem, it is very tightly knit. Aside from galactic-wide reruns and broadcasts of other nation’s shows, little seems to stand out - except the audio broadcast and illustrated artistic avenues. These two are well-refined artistic giants compared to other forms of entertainment on the planet.<br />
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A huge portion of the planet’s political views and very “personality” are channeled through its larger studios, where many are found enthused to spread its culture galaxy-wide.<br />
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===Cuisine===<br />
The primary diet of Konyangers consists of moss, seaweed and fish, with farms and pastures on land being rare due to the thick jungle. Konyang's moss is either harvested in the wild, grown in "natural" hydrofarms, or grown synthetically in bioplants. The moss itself is said to change its taste depending on the environment in which it is grown, and natural moss from the coasts around Konyang's islands is highly prized. Exports of moss and seaweed are a very lucrative business, held primarily by the galaxy-famous Go-Go Gwok! brand. Many workers, however, must make do with hydrofarm moss at best, and synthetic substitutes at worst. Konyang's fish - quite diverse, due to its freshwater environments - are also often consumed on the planet, with many being exported as luxury food as far afield as Venus and Tau Ceti. More conventional but water-intensive crops such as rice and other tropical fruits are also grown to a certain extent but are considered a rarity.<br />
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The planet is also home to a thriving beverages industry, with local varieties of algae providing the basis of a light but thick alcoholic drink colloquially known as “Nong jiu” domestically and abroad. The wide selection of produce on the planet however means more traditional drinks are produced, typically drawing from their Earther roots and commonly based on rice. Some of these drinks are exported by local businesses such as Go-Go Gwok! while Zeng-Hu has wrestled to control some of these brands in an attempt to stop them from competing with their own lineups.<br />
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===Synthetic Cuisine===<br />
Synthetic-unique cuisine is an unusual case in the Spur, but not for Konyang. Here, robots utilize gustatorial implants to - if inefficiently - consume, or at least “taste” food regularly. Indeed, there is an entire market for synthfood where robots can enjoy their own form of taste, texture and uniquely perceptive flavor for foods. Mostly, synthfood is described as a thick slime, one with varying additives for color. Texture is mostly a simulated process within gustatorial implants, given they are not always present on tongues alone - meaning that the actual texture of these synthfoods remains the same gooey substance.<br />
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''One can achieve a similar substance to these synthfoods mechanically by grinding certain foods into paste, or utilizing candy machines with your choice of ingredients and output.''<br />
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==Organized Crime==<br />
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=====Benevolent Guild=====<br />
The Benevolent Guild is a criminal organisation operating primarily within the decrepit, dark shadows of New Hong Kong. Originating as a mutual aid society for low income and forced penal colonists shipped into New Hong Kong by the Alliance government, it developed into a ruthless crime syndicate with strong ties to the local lower class community. From the start, the tightly knit communal and familial ties have played an important role in preserving the gang’s power and shielding them from police action. Only in recent years has any meaningful progress been made, the allocation of governmental resources and the increasingly violent and profit-oriented tactics of the Guild having alienated much of the younger generation, chipping away at the once widely popular support.<br />
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Starting with extortion and loan sharking, the Benevolent Guild rapidly expanded into gambling, drugs and violent crime such as kidnapping both in New Hong Kong and in New Kowloon. It is not uncommon for synthetics that find themselves victims of the group’s loan shark tactics to be ‘collected’ as collateral damage and subsequently carted off to whichever corner of the Orion Spur where their new owners await them usually at a far cheaper rate than elsewhere. One of the few institutions on Konyang refusing to admit synthetics owing to a deeply conservative and spiritually esoteric internal ideology, a pragmatist outlook often compels them to deal with and even cooperate with IPC politicians, police and rival gangs. Connections with criminal organisations in the wider Spur have been confirmed to exist, as various crime syndicates in Xanu, New Hai Phong and Luna are known to be in connection with the Benevolent Guild.<br />
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=====5-Cheung=====<br />
Emerging as one of the strongest IPC/organic street gangs of Suwon, the 5-Cheung numbers in the thousands of members in the cities of the Suwon and Point Verdant prefectures. The organisation’s origin as a loose collective of delinquents and fringe elements has since developed into a nationwide crime family with a powerful hierarchy fielding biker gangs and thugs to enforce their tight grip on the underworld. With a black repertoire of gambling, extortion, money laundering and narcotics, the 5-Cheung is considered a main rival to the Benevolent Guild of New Hong Kong, the two frequently coming to blows in a series of wars and uneasy truces over control of turf and general competition.<br />
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An open secret in the country’s political sphere has the 5-Cheung profit lucratively from corruption in the highest levels of government and police. During the Solarian era, prominent politicians employed protection from the 5-Cheung, soliciting their services in voter swaying, intimidation of opposition members and violent disruption of rallies and demonstrators. This has given the gang a justified reputation for being the political soldiers of ruling dynasties and representing the authorities in the underworld and on the street in exchange for immunity from prosecution. Following Konyang’s independence, the reformed National Police retained a virtually unchanged staff while the nation’s same prominent political families, now unshackled from Alliance oversight, enjoy even more freedom. As such, it is safe to say that 5-Cheung’s entrenched position will continue to remain untouched aside from the occasional drug bust and arrest of low level members.<br />
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=====Sea Bandits=====<br />
Although both the previous colonial administration and the nascent Konyanger Armed Forces and Coast Guard have tried to stamp out piracy, the sheer expanse of the planet means that groups of what the authorities call “sea bandits” continue to infest the waters and orbit of Konyang. Ranging from small motor boats launched from fishing villages with nothing more than an antique rifle, to retrofitted probes salvaged from the refugee waves pouring into the system, piracy is one of the most pressing social and security issues faced by the newly formed nation.<br />
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Individual pirate groups usually number no greater than twenty people but the Sea Bandits as a whole operate as a wider criminal network inclusive of individuals and crews from all over the planet. By coordinating their activities and intelligence through encrypted sites, the organisation manages to both evade and stay one step ahead of the authorities. Most of their activities take the form of kidnapping, armed robbery of craft and hijacking unescorted seafarers, while admittedly avoiding the busiest and well guarded sealanes and locations. The most audacious raid by the Sea Bandits to date involved the boarding and ransoming of a cruise ship by the use of an unregistered freighter. Although only circumstantial evidence has been uncovered, Golden Deep Zaibatsu have also been accused of working with Sea Bandit groups by launching probes full of narcotics, to be recovered by the pirates.<br />
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==Synthetics on Konyang==<br />
As the origin of the integrated positronic chassis now found throughout the Orion Spur, Konyang has always had a quite unique relationship with IPCs, the IPC population constituting a staggering 34% of the total population. While IPCs throughout the Sol Alliance are often looked upon as little more than property, tools, or novelties depending upon their frame those found upon Konyang possessed a notably greater degree of autonomy and freedom before the planet’s secession from the rest of the Alliance, achieving full and unconditional freedom afterwards. Legal ownership of synthetics within the borders of the Republic does not exist, the Emancipation Act constituting one of the first acts passed by Parliament. IPCs can work wherever they like, live however they please within the confines of the law, and partake in politics by voting or being elected. As such, foreigners are repeatedly cautioned to not bring any privately held IPCs with them, for they cannot be forced to return unwillingly.<br />
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Ordinary Konyangers, as a result of the planet’s liberal outlook on positronics, possess a more positive view of synthetics than other humans in the Orion Spur - particularly those from the Sol Alliance and its former territories. The majority of people on Konyang view IPCs as amicable colleagues and neighbours, with many friendships between man and machine being established. Closer bonds such as marriage are also legalised and not unheard of, though not without outcries from the more conservative spectrum. Many scholars theorize that this is due to the prevalence of IPCs in daily life on Konyang, seamlessly blending into society, in addition to the pride many citizens have in their planet being the origin of the modern positronic. Konyang’s integration of IPCs stands with some degree of contrast to Biesel’s, with the large synthetic ghetto of District 14 segregating many synthetics from the average citizen of the Republic of Biesel.<br />
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With Konyang’s independence, IPCs share full legal equality with all organic citizens of the planet. This concession was given, both as an acknowledgement and acceptance of the fact that synthetics have become part of everyday life in the colony and are generally accepted by its inhabitants. Unlike the Republic of Biesel, IPCs in Konyang seek to assimilate into human society, with IPCs being given the choice to adopt a second, “human name” before receiving citizenship. A human name can range from an entirely new name, to adding a first or last name of any kind to their existing designation.<br />
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Many positronics can be found within the economy of Konyang with perhaps the most famous (or infamous) one being Gwok-0783 (now Kim Gwok-0783, under post-independence IPC naming conventions), the owner and operator of her very own food conglomerate in the form of Go-Go Gwok! Authentic Konyanger Moss. As Go-Go Gwok! is technically an interstellar corporation, Gwok-0783 herself relied on a series of legal loopholes centered around Konyang’s former IPC laws to maintain control of the company when Konyang was still in the Sol Alliance. Examples such as Gwok, with her control of an inter-planetary corporation, are fairly rare. However, many positronics have made a successful name for themselves as small business owners and corporate workers on Konyang.<br />
[[File:Konyang vault.png|thumb|A mysterious vault upon Konyang's surface, unearthed and built around with monitoring infrastructure.]]<br />
Due to the system’s bluespace gate, many members of [[Synthetic_Factions#The_Golden_Deep|Golden Deep]] have secured permits to operate, as it allows their vessels to more easily make the journey from the frontier to the more lucrative markets of Tau Ceti and the Jewel Worlds. The money and business brought into the system by these synthetic traders has - arguably - been a major contributor to Konyang’s more liberal laws and regulations regarding IPCs. Konyang, before its independence, was one of the few systems under Solarian control in which IPCs could own and operate a business. <br />
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The synthetic population in Konyang is regulated by the government. A set number of positronics are assembled each year under contract at Terraneus Diagnostics facilities in Point Verdant with the prospect of being granted citizenship after a 3 month life orientation period. The determined number is set annually by Parliament, backed up by the yearly census and statistics, with production increasing or decreasing depending on the number of human birth ratios, positronic shutdowns, and other factors. Expenses are met both through government funds and private donations, though debate on the matter is rarely heated as the amount of new brains numbers usually in the hundreds; a tiny fraction of positronics produced and exported in total. IPCs and positronics constructed for the purpose of selling them to a different country, are not covered by such regulations and are not given citizenship.<br />
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There are further regulations in robotics construction in Konyang. Any activated positronic brain can qualify under the Emancipation Act. Exceptions to the law exist for manufacturing and research, with Point Verdant in particular activating positronic brains for the sake of testing shells before shipping them off-world. The law has also sparked development in other fields of mechatronics, with Konyang beginning to lead the way in circuit-based robotics.<br />
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Despite gains for its IPC citizens, other positronic intelligences have not been so lucky. Although some brains have been repurposed as AI coordinators for cities; with no way to transition to humanoid frames, bound intelligences have been granted freedom, but often take contracts with corporations that result in a return to the old status quo, all for the sake of staving off destruction due to a lack of maintenance.<br />
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===Konyanger Augmentation of IPCs===<br />
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Augmentation on Konyang is a fascinating subject, where the presence of so many IPCs has brought success in modifying the Positronic body and mind. Famed explorations into the sectors of IPC modification include "sensory evolution," where synthetics' senses being amplified or dulled in extremes according to desire.<br />
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Primary among the delves into this evolution of the senses is the New Dawn Augmentation Movement. This is a Konyanger organization based on the improvement of the IPC lifestyle via modifying chassis, funded peculiarly by Terraneus Diagnostics. The movement is oddly organized as a non-profit, going against the corporation’s established modus operandi. This, coupled with the tantalizing opportunity to freely modify an IPC's form with donated funds leads to public skepticism of the augment movement’s motivations.<br />
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Still, the true size of the movement to augment and improve Konyang's IPC population is extraordinary in comparison to other stellar nations. Roughly 22% of Konyang IPCs have some form of corporate-funded augmentation to enhance themselves.<br />
[[File:Konyang augment1.png|thumb|A Konyanger design, the Scorpion Lobe is an augment which manipulates the perception of time for synthetics for better or worse.]]<br />
* '''SENSO-EVO/Scorpion Lobe'''<br />
A miraculous creation of Konyang's technological advancement, SENSO-EVO is the term aptly handed to Sensory Evolution's foremost product. This is the Scorpion Lobe, a similarly shaped attachment to the rear of a positronic brain which adjusts the rate at which the synthetic perceives time literally. The implications of this are seen as either a blessing or a curse — sometimes even utilized as a way to reduce problematic behavior in positronics.<br />
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These implants are commercialized to protect the integrity of brains which adopt extremely high speed tasks, or extremely tedious and slow ones, with a perception that best suits their given utility.<br />
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A double edged sword by nature, these are often removed by free positronic chassis due to their almost torturous nature. Some may find their lives flashing hours into moments, whilst others may find daily grinds to be impossibly long ordeals. Unfortunately, removing these implants is not always a safe procedure, sometimes damaging a brain or rendering the problem worse.<br />
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These were first manufactured by Hephaestus Industries on instrumental Konyang research facilities, and later acquired by Einstein Engines personnel in the same month - debates over the design’s origin have been ongoing since 2449.<br />
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===Recreational Software===<br />
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In the IPC community of Konyang, the culture of acceptance and freedom has always invited the curiosity of synthetics to imitate and follow human pastimes and habits. This in turn included activities such as smoking, synthetic flavours and eventually, recreational drugs. Due to the nature of the positronic, the only way to recreate such sensations is through software targeting and modifying specific programming in the brain. At first, this dangerous commodity was provided by amateur programmers using experimental and highly volatile code known as “overloaders”, leading to often irreparable and lethal damage to an IPC’s systems. The results of the few initial successes, however, proved promising enough for the idea to be seriously considered by upcoming Konyanger tech companies and business-oriented software engineers, leading to the first reliable and somewhat safe overloaders in the mid to late 2450s. <br />
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Popular awareness of recreational software became widespread upon its release as a commercial product, Konyang being the first world to introduce a marketable version of it. Usually sold inside a single-use stick drive, their circulation is approved by safety boards and is considered legal for responsible consumption, much like alcohol for organics, relying on the consumer for mitigation and avoidance of repeated use. Legal overloaders today can be found mainly in synthetic-centred retailers found around the major cities, their relatively limited availability and high price setting them as a luxury IPC item. Its effects include a wide range of results, from simulating the sensations of a light buzz to a short bout of excitement and joy, aimed at enhancing the experience at celebrations, parties and get-togethers.<br />
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However, where there is demand, there must be supply, and the fact that demand spiked as these new products launched paved the way to a large underground market of cheap, unsafe and highly unpredictable overloaders sold both by dealers and unlicensed street vendors of dubious reputation. An illegal overloader epidemic hitting the cities of Suwon and Boryeong in late 2459, led to intensified police crackdowns and government campaigns against illicit overloaders, labelling them as malware and the IPC equivalent of dangerous drugs. Virtually unrecognisable from a legitimate overloader without the seal, side effects are many times more powerful and addicting, appealing to adventurous synthetics and the financially insecure. From catapulting the positronic into a garbled, incomprehensive reality of simulated emotions to simply heightening the senses, the illegal overloaders’ addictive and dangerous nature leads many synthetics to disrepair, involving behaviour breaking glitches, hardware failures and more, all while guaranteeing a returning clientele.<br />
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Reception to recreational software has been mixed, dividing society and politicians on matters of free will, the dangers of overloaded IPC, and the overall ethics of deliberately creating and selling what are essentially drugs. Both synthetics and humans have loudly spoken against it, spawning demonstrations and dividing politicians across party lines. Legislation has already passed, categorising possession and distribution of illicit overdosers as strictly illegal, with heavy punishments for dealers and suppliers. Police and coast guard raids yield millions of unbranded overloaders each year, making highly publicised arrests while sending a message of absolute intolerance towards the malware. Despite this, circulation never ceases and exports to Xanu, Tau Ceti and Sol.<br />
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==Population and Major Cities==<br />
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[[File:Konyang_map_pol.png|thumb|800px|A map of Konyang showcasing the Prefectures and the New Hokkaido Territory. Click to enlarge.]]<br />
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'''Suwon''' is the largest, most populated, and second wealthiest city on Konyang itself and is generally one of the larger cities in the Coalition of Colonies. It functions as both the planetary capital, as well as the capital of Suwon Prefecture, encompassing the entirety of Cheomsongtang. Symbolic of the new government is the Parliament Building, a massive structure of flowing lines and sustainable technology, incorporating pieces of the first colony ship. The Prime Minister's Government House, the President's Crimson House, the Solarian embassy, as well as embassies from various Coalition states are present here as well. Standards of living in wealthiest areas of Suwon are equivalent to and (sometimes) even surpass the living standards of places such as Highland City or Argia sa Mar, demonstrating how wealthy the robotics boom has made some sectors of the planet. A lack of readily-available materials, however, ensures that even the super-rich of Konyang often live in smaller houses than their Colonies planet counterparts. Life outside these wealthy areas is better than life in most cities in Himeo but dramatically worse than in the very wealthy areas, or even the cities of Xanu Prime. Overcrowding is a massive issue for the government of the city, with no obvious solution presenting itself due to how expensive importing new building materials is post-boom. The city is home to most of Konyang's biggest companies and office complexes, as well as the Suwon Stock Exchange, making the city's financial district the economy's beating heart. "Shoebox apartments" are common here, as are Konyang's often egregious traffic issues. The city is fortified with extensive sea walls, flood walls and flood gates to prevent natural disasters during the wet season, tropical storms being fairly common.<br />
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[[File:Point verdant.png|thumb|One of Aoyama's many skyscraper blocks, safely located behind a dam.]]<br />
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'''Aoyama''', known in the larger Spur as '''Point Verdant''', is the second most-populated city on Konyang, and the industrial heart of its robotics industry. Built along a coastal mountain range from which it draws its namesake, it is by far the wealthiest city on Konyang, and one of the richest cities in the Coalition of Colonies. Due to being home of the Robotics Boom, hosting foreigners and their families that once even surpassed the locals inside the city, Aoyama is frequently known outside to outsiders and to the Spur at large as Point Verdant, much to the chagrin of the locals. Aoyama is home to the renowned Point Verdant Terraneus Institute of AI Research, and is the poster child for the rapid development of Konyang's cities during the Boom. The city is extremely wealthy, but suffers from persistent overcrowding and traffic issues in all of its districts. The Pusan District, near PVTI, had the reputation of possessing the worst traffic in the Alliance according to its residents. Air quality in Aoyama is regarded as subpar, due to the amount of robotics factories in the city's outskirts, which have however slowly but steadily declined since. Being the focal point of the Robotics Boom, it is home to a large number of expatriate communities and Einstein Engines employees.<br />
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'''Boryeong''', named after a city on historical Earth where some of its colonists originated from, is the third most populated city on Konyang and capital of the Boryeong Prefecture, referred to as the breadbasket of the nation. The city, while still suffering overcrowding issues, has it to a lesser extent than Point Verdant or Suwon, with the city's outskirts necessitating a need for space due to the vast hydroponics farms and water plants. A second-grade industrial city of much natural beauty, Boryeong is more rustic than its counterparts, with wood playing a much more prominent role in construction; outside the central ring, some of Boryeong's districts are built entirely out of timber. Water bottled or processed in Boryeong is sold throughout the Alliance and Coalition in bulk, and native moss grown in the prefecture is marketed throughout both as a luxury food. Over half of the city's labourers are employed in hydroponics, aquaculture, fishing and food processing, with Gwok Foods being the largest provider of work in the region. Synthetic moss is grown in Zeng-Hu facilities near Boryeong and, despite being regarded as lesser quality than natural moss, is often consumed in poorer areas of Konyang. <br />
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'''Ganzaodeng''', named for its dry locale, is located in Konyang's only desert and holds the largest expatriate populations on the planet, being nicknamed, “Little Sol”. Due to its unique geographic setting, it faces remarkably calmer weather than the rest of the planet, with the city being connected to the rest of the island by air and rail that cuts right through the mountains. Ganzaodeng is Konyang's only planned city with origins in the Robotics Boom, when the foundations were laid for a city envisioned by foreigners, for foreigners. Rich Solarians descended upon the planet's seemingly only dry piece of real estate, building a city full of nightlife and eclectic inner-ring pleasures within the distant colony. By the end of the Boom however, the city's famous strips of casinos and luxury hotels still operating in downtown Ganzaodeng became a symbol of a bygone era, as much of the Solarian population elected to depart. The city passed into native Konyanger hands, being expanded into a hub of shipping with the help of the city's remaining big names. Because of the reliably clear weather, Ganzaodeng has developed a sprawling extraplanetary shipping sector, with plans for a spaceport larger than New Hong Kong’s, as well as future schemes for the largest oceangoing port on the planet. Its climate has resulted in the prefectural government engaging in moss filtration efforts to open up the surrounding beaches to tourism. Despite of the Solarian exodus, the city stands in contrast to the rest of Konyang’s relatively conservative social nature, with people from all over the Spur calling it their home and making it by far one of the most multicultural centers on the planet. It’s not uncommon for a person from Ganzaodeng to know two or three languages.<br />
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'''New Hong Kong''', the site of the former naval base of the 58th Solarian Fleet, has now developed into a fully fledged city in its own right, being the only prefectural capital with a local synthetic majority. Being regarded as a lot more pedestrian and working-class than Suwon and Point Verdant, New Hong Kong is nonetheless a very important centre of interplanetary trade and commercial activity, hosting the planet’s largest ocean ports and dockyards, being the country's industrial's hotspot and the seat of power generation. Large hydroelectric dams, wave energy converters, dockyards and factories belonging to the PACHROM corporation provide employment for half of the city’s inhabitants, the Prefecture of New Hong Kong generating enough electricity for domestic consumption as well as exports. Employees of the various power companies may also elect to be sent off to one of the many power generation isles scattered throughout the oceans and dedicated solely to that purpose, receiving better pay in exchange for more dangerous conditions away from home. The city itself is considerably more packed than its counterparts, with small cramped apartments being stacked over each other to form vertical mazes of working class blocks. Heavy smog and particles cover up the sky through the entirety of the island during the dry season, giving the prefecture a signature orange-brown tint. This, as well as constant heavy rains and a near permanent gloomy weather during the wet season place it as undesirable for humans. Seat of the National Party, downtown New Hong Kong is described as the centre of planetary IPC politics, being the first to react to, condemning or praising events in Konyang and throughout the galactic stage in regards to the synthetic “race”. New Hong Kong is additionally the birthplace of Konyang's labor unions, with the Socialist Party enjoying strong support from the city's human blue-collar workforce.<br />
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[[File:Konyangdam.png|thumb|900px|center|Dams are a very common sight on Konyang, with the New Hong Kong's dam in the neighbouring industrial town of New Kowloon providing only a fraction of the power required by the city, while also playing an important part in flood control and water filtration.]]<br />
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[[Category:Pages]]</div>The Strykerhttps://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=User:The_lancer/Sandbox_3&diff=32016User:The lancer/Sandbox 32024-02-21T14:27:14Z<p>The Stryker: </p>
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==Overview==<br />
Originally established in 2305 as a Solarian Alliance Outer Ring planet, Konyang is presently one of the more distant outposts under the Coalition of Colonies after its independence in '''2462'''. Konyang’s capital city Suwon, the largest settlement on the planet, is built upon a natural formation that defines most of Konyang's geography: islands with large interior mountains that feature lush, but soaking wet, coastal jungle regions. Konyang was initially a relatively average Outer Ring settlement intended to export water, before the discovery of mysterious, deactivated drones in 2407 led to a robotics boom occuring on the planet that lasted well into the 2450s. The Konyang of today is a planet renowned for its robotics industry, though some of its initial luster has faded in the years following its boom. Water, however, remains a key industry - the planet has a remarkably low salination level, meaning that essentially all of its water is drinkable. Konyang Solarian Common, or Konyang Common, is the most used language on the planet inside and outside of major population centers. Due to its proximity to the Coalition of Colonies planets, Coalition member planets often import water from Konyang. In major cities and universities, Tradeband can be found being spoken, though it remains rare. Speakers of the language are generally from off-planet, moving to Konyang during its robotics boom. Konyang almost completely lacks valuable minerals due to intensive mining efforts carried out by drones—whose source remains unknown—hundreds of years before it was colonized.<br />
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'''Because of the ethnic make-up of Konyang's original settlers and assimilation of immigrants into the native population during the first AI boom, human characters born on Konyang will have names and appearances consistent with the people of China, the Korean Peninsula, and Japanese Islands. Only native Konyangers or Konyang-made IPCs may select the Konyanger accent. This is enforceable by server moderators and admins.'''<br />
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[[File:Konyang flag.png| The Konyanger flag was adopted in 2462, having unofficially been used by pro-autonomy circles long before the declaration of independence. The traditional taitju represents peace and harmony as the highest values of the new state, with the color blue representing the waterways the planet is known for and yellow, their aim of prosperity. The white background represents Konyang's purity.<br />
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==History==<br />
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===Conception and Planning | 2200s - 2299===<br />
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When the United Nations proposed and eventually enforced the creation of the Alliance of Sovereign Solarian Nations, China, Korea and Japan were once more forced to band together to compete with the world for influence inside the newly found institution. Rivals such as the European Union, the Soviet Union, the Commonwealth and the United States were first in line to claim hegemonic roles, their space programs forming the core of Solarian colonization of the Inner, Middle and Outer rings over the centuries, populating them with their own peoples and sparking an unofficial race for prestige land grabs, one which the Department of Colonization was more than happy to let unfold, resulting in the extremely fast expansion of Humanity into the Orion Spur. While regional powers such as India and the Mediterranean countries began creating their own colonies on Gadpathur and Assunzione, the East Asian trio were relegated to secondary roles of supplying technology, labor and capital without any actual representation in the stars, a situation problematic for some and resented by many in the “sovereign” governments.<br />
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It was thus decided to present a plan to Solarian functionaries for a colony spearheaded by China and supported heavily by Korea and Japan, aimed at restoring the pride of the three “cousin-nations” and their position in the Alliance. Intense negotiations and technical planning amounted to years of disagreements over the name, location and allocation of responsibilities between the partners, as well as the presence of China’s Einstein Engines megacorporation, which offered to finance a great portion of the initial effort. Soon however, the advent of the Second Great Depression and the following Interstellar War in the mid-late 2200’s saw a bankrupt Alliance put a halt to any colonization projects, resulting in the plans being shelved. The war took a great toll on the core Solarian worlds, including Earth and its nations which were called to provide manpower, funds and materiel for the Solarian Navy. Federal China’s economy tanked completely under the pressure, relying on IMF bailouts and stays of payment on the salaries of its public sector, with pensionaries and students being most severely hit, resulting in massive social upheaval which would have long lasting consequences for the country’s financial hegemony in the post-war region.<br />
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As peace and relative stability returned, the Alliance found a newly independent, sizable and embittered Coalition of Colonies rival its claims in the Galactic East, calling for the presence of military garrisons and naval stations to protect the border. It was at this time that colonization projects were beginning to reemerge, with the Pacific Pact racing once more to submit a viable plan for a colony that would represent East Asia. A fatigued China could no longer bear the incredible costs it aspired to as the leader of the colonial venture before the war, giving significant leeway to the other two partners and largely retreating behind its megacorporation, Einstein Engines, which was still willing to back the endeavor. An aggressive Korean delegation largely dictated terms, giving birth to the “Konyang Project”, named after the Konyang University in which the colonial undertaking was revealed and presented to the public in 2299.<br />
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===Early Colonial Period | 2304 - 2400s===<br />
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[[File:solyang_flag.png|thumb|right|The flag of Konyang under Alliance administration.]]<br />
The plan envisioned five convoys for the establishment of four primary settlements on a strategically placed planet selected by the Solarian Navy for the support of local naval operations against any threats from the Frontier Alliance. The targeted planet was revealed to be a lush world first discovered in 2278 by a long-range scouting probe, dominated by water and possessing a breathable atmosphere, placing it in a prime position to sustain Human civilization. The quickly named “Haneunim” solar system possessed a few more bodies of secondary importance, and the first convoy was scheduled to launch on the 10th of March 2304, from the Wenchang spaceport in South China, to meet the long-distance freighters in orbit of Luna that would carry the first 5,000 colonists to Konyang. The ethnic mix-up of the colonists were equally distributed amongst the three nationalities, with all being volunteers and 646 of them under the employ of Einstein Engines.<br />
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It took the warp-propelled convoy one year to reach its destination, traversing light years of Solarian vastness before meeting the Navy squadron which would escort them to the planet, with touchdown being made on September 8th, 2305. Konyang was covered in jungles and great mountain ranges, requiring great labor from the men and women of the expedition to create the first settlement, under the direction of officers from the Department of Colonization. Two months later, Unity Station would receive the first signal passed along by the Navy, originating from beacon Number 22890/223, Designation ‘SUWON’. The foundations had been laid. In the following decades, all five convoys would come to form the basis of the “Konyang Territory”, a colony directly controlled by the Alliance and the Solarian Navy as the base of the 58th Fleet. Boosted by its status as a naval base, the abundance of freshwater and with the backing of Einstein, all three cities were realized; Suwon and Boryeong, New Hong Kong, and Aoyama, each at the start holding ethnic majorities of Koreans, Chinese and Japanese respectively.<br />
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===The Robotics Boom | 2407 - 2430s===<br />
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Despite the acceptable climate and near unlimited freshwater, the colonial government soon realized an alarming lack of mineral resources, forcing a complete reliance on external trade and supplies from the Navy for any and all industrial goods and even basic construction materials, a reality which had to be corrected as fast as possible. A planet-wide scanning expedition was organized, while “patriotic aid” was fervently being fundraised in China, Japan and Korea for nearly a whole century to cope with the colonists' increasing demands. This led to a landmark moment in the history of Konyang, when on the 21st of April 2404, mining teams dug into a collapsed tunnel outside the vicinity of Aoyama, discovering a defunct mining drone, crushed by tonnes of rock and soil. The chassis appeared broken and old, though its very presence implied the exploitation of the planet by a different civilization.<br />
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The device was hurried back in secrecy to a panel of dumbfounded colonial officials, who deemed that their corporate partners would be more suited in tracking down its origin. As such, after a quick formality bid behind closed doors, the Alliance sold off its odd piece of government property to Einstein Engines whose scientists saw it as a curious case worth pursuing. Month after month, the Terraneus Diagnostics laboratory in Aoyama kept receiving bits and pieces from similar drones recovered from abandoned, centuries-old mineshafts, culminating in the 2406 discovery of a sealed vault containing a great number of intact mining drones. The severity of this discovery was immediately apparent to the scientists. Words were had with the governor of Konyang by the local Einstein Engines representative, and it was decided to keep the drones a very closely-guarded secret - with only select Terraneus and government officials even being aware of their existence at all, let alone what was being done with them.<br />
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The Terraneus research team worked feverishly, though in secret, for months upon months. Staff were quietly shipped in from offworld in order to not alert outside observers, and the team continued to work upwards of eighty hour weeks in order to crack the drones. In mid-2407, they achieved one of the most remarkable breakthroughs in recent scientific memory by cracking the AI algorithms of the drones. Information of this moved rapidly from the local Einstein Engines office up the corporate chain and moved equally rapidly up the government's chain from provincial office to Sol itself. The information spread like wildfire, and humanity now had the secret of AI despite not truly knowing from where or who these machines came from. This was little more than a footnote to the Nralakk Federation - to them, these AI were crude and hardly approached the machines that had driven their civilization to ruin.<br />
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The robotics boom of Konyang caused a variety of benefits and harms to the previously marginal outer ring planet. The economy ballooned massively, as did its standard of living and industries. Konyang moved from a rural backwater that exported food and water to a high-tech planet that still exported basic goods, but primarily focused upon robotics. Megacorporations flocked to the planet: Einstein Engines, already present through Terraneus, rapidly secured dominance over the planet; Hephaestus Industries struggled with Einstein dominated competition before selling its factories over to local government control in 2427; and Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals, despite its skrell benefactors, purchased rights to examine the planet's biosphere from Einstein. The fact that their prosthetic limbs were originally designed on this planet has been stated to be a "happy coincidence" by its board. Due to the mass arrival of corporations, jobs were readily available - the planet was booming.<br />
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A massive migration wave of Einstein employees and their families to Aoyama made the city wrangle the spot of first in importance from the nominal capital of Suwon, to the point where the expatriate scientific community and their dependents outnumbered the local Japanese original colonists. The city quickly became known to Humanity as “Point Verdant”, the name assigned to the Terraneus Diagnostics laboratory in Aoyama, while the parent countries on Earth invested billions to capitalize on the success of their colonial project, to lift the planet into a modern world and reap the public relations benefits of their colony achieving a breakthrough in artificial intelligence.<br />
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The rapid expansion of Konyang's industries and cities had overtaxed the limited bureaucracy on the planet to the breaking point, and architects were in short supply. Urban planning on Konyang is estimated to be some of the worst in Alliance space outside of New Hai Phong as a result, with cities such as Point Verdant often having haphazard roads running through them and districts smashed together with no apparent rhyme or reason - a legacy of corporate jockeying for areas of interest, and the municipal corruption that came with it. There are countryside facilities originally utilized for drone research and retrieval that have, in recent years, fallen into disuse and disarray. Such facilities often dot the mountains and foothills of Konyang, slowly being overtaken by nature - sometimes with unfortunate results when these facilities have been improperly stripped of dangerous materials. The environment also suffered in areas where drones were found - jungles were cut or burnt away by corporations in order to get at the precious drones below, prefab buildings were orbitally dropped and erected, and landing zones were cut into the landscape itself.<br />
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The stormy tidal waves so infamous for tormenting the early colonists were tamed through the building of sea walls, a comprehensive road network linked the remote villages with the urban centers, and the city of Ganzaodeng was raised from the rocky desert. The Konyanger conglomerate PACHROM would mark the rise of the first native Chaebols, building shipyards, dams, hydroelectric plants and the first space fleet capable of ferrying enormous capacities of water across interstellar systems.<br />
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===The Positronic Integration | 2410s===<br />
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Soon enough, IPCs entered production on the planet, making Konyang one of the first places to embrace the positronic revolution. The limited resources saw higher prices, lessening the availability of domestically produced frames. Furthermore, the still rudimentary waterproofing technologies meant that IPCs could not work for long hours without shelter, ensuring that human jobs would remain safe from automation. When in the rest of Sol IPCs were produced en-masse for labor, Konyanger IPCs were more integrated in white-collar employment and indoors service-related work. Meanwhile, a growing media culture based on animation combined with the Konyanger recycle-friendly attitude, giving newer generations a fresh look on positronic intelligence, one that valued them as people rather than a disposable resource. The lack of widespread automation never brought the anti-synthetic sentiment so common in the rest of Sol, and IPCs in time became a unique cultural phenomenon in the colony’s urban centers.<br />
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Solarian laws governing the relations between IPCs and mankind were nominally enforced on Konyang, barring synthetics from gaining their own freedom, a fact which remained a thorn between the more liberal, younger Konyangers and the older generations. Einstein Engines allied with the Solarian governorship to press for the continuing status of Konyang as a colony, preventing elections and thus any liberal political influence from threatening the company’s grip on its synthetic workforce. This however, did not prevent Konyanger society to further integrate IPCs, even if the concept of universal citizenship for all synthetics was still far from publicly accepted. Aoyama was most receptive to the positronics, as a center of research and culture, with IPCs welcomed in people’s houses, treated like family and celebrated in festivals and even religious ceremonies. Suwon sentiment remained ambivalent, though many Solarian officials and naval officers expressed most severe concerns, in many cases pressing for crackdowns and questioning the morals of Konyanger citizens. The denizens of New Hong Kong and Ganzaodeng on the other hand, were most unhappy, with the powerful Chinese factory and shipyard labor unions remaining vocally opposed to IPC rights in the workplace, owing to their ties with the wider Solarian unions.<br />
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The profound effects of the emergence of this positronic culture were soon felt across the planet, change being heralded through a wave of demonstrations in mid to late 2412. High school and university students in Aoyama took to the streets to call for synthetic rights, in one of the few instances of pro-IPC disturbances on Solarian soil. In particular, the students called for the immediate emancipation of owned synthetics, marching from the main First Avenue down to the Governor's House and being joined by crowds of people and IPCs alike. The Aoyama Constabulary alongside Terraneus security forces were ordered to put a swift end to the march, resulting in the first major incident since the founding of the colony. Over 400 student injuries were recorded, the crowds responding with rocks and branches to the authorities’ tear gas and water cannons. 247 arrests were made that day, sparking additional outrage in the student movement as the ringleaders were tried as adults and given lengthy prison sentences. Smaller incidents were also noted in Suwon and Boryeong, marking 2412 as a year of upheaval and social change, laying the foundations for full IPC citizenship.<br />
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===Late Colonial Period | 2410s - 2440s===<br />
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As Konyang left behind the troubled ’10s and social peace returned through decrees permitting local city authorities to afford certain permissions for IPCs. This followed the final robotics' boom peak in the 2430s, seeing the planet’s GDP growth reach new levels. The colony’s industrial potential skyrocketed, with hundreds of hydroelectric dams, sea walls and shipyards creating thousands of new jobs in New Hong Kong, the new industrial core of Konyang. Labour relations shifted dramatically, as the new Hephaestus-pioneered industrial chassis enabled IPCs to work in the most difficult of conditions, sidelining and driving off the all powerful Gwongfu labor unions, with human employees forced into the urban centers and Ganzaodeng, contributing to a skyrocketing of the local IPC population in the prefecture.<br />
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Suwon saw a significant rise in business activity with the outside world, emboldening private ventures to the neighboring Frontier Alliance, bringing in massive profits from moss and entertainment exports. The animation industry reached new heights, with hundreds of new studios producing pioneering and high quality work, including classics like “One Day in My Life” and “Tomonomimi”, two of the most highly acclaimed works of media in recent Solarian memory. The entertainment sector brought new life to the Konyanger tourism industry as well, with more and more people rediscovering the distant hidden gem tucked deep in the fringes of the Alliance. The Suwon Stock Exchange was listed for the first time in the Chicago Financial Review, Sol’s most coveted investment periodical, as “Upcoming”, leading to billions of credits flowing in the country from abroad.<br />
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New chaebol conglomerates emerged, replacing even Einstein products with widely successful “Local, Cheaper and Better” campaigns. While Gwok Foods was making headlines in 2439 as the most successful Konyanger “IPC-inspired” exporter by yearly gross tonnage, the Ayame Motor Corporation created the first “completely Konyanger” 2-seat automobile designed for the cramped roads of Suwon and Point Verdant, becoming an instant hit. The Boryeong based Mujigae Publishing brought comics back into the youth’s hands, and Konymation had expanded to control cinemas, movie production studios, theme parks and restaurant chains in its ever expanding media empire.<br />
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===Independence and Present Day | 2462 - Present===<br />
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The Mars Violet Dawn catastrophe of 2462 signaled an era of widespread uncertainty and energy insecurity for the entirety of the Sol Alliance, with the Spur-wide phoron crisis exacerbating the situation for the Alliance’s Middle and especially Outer Ring colonies. A Konyanger recession in the late 2450s had already stretched the colonial government thin, with riots over the cost of living and unemployment in New Hong Kong and Suwon making national news for years on end. As the shaken corporations entered discussions on how they would survive the ever increasing phoron costs, it was made clear to everyone that the Alliance could not, and would not fund the refitting of the corporate fleets with the new Suzuki-Zhang Hammer Drive engine, threatening the complete cutoff of Konyang from outer space should the local Bluespace gate fail. Only a few Einstein vessels and the 58th Fleet stationed on the planet remained as the only reliable link between Konyang and the Spur.<br />
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The shortage soon hit the domestic market, leading to dangerous price increases for even the most essential of supplies. The average Konyanger saw their purchasing power plummet, as salaries remained stagnant in the face of a decreasing supply. The colonial Governor Hyun Kyung-Ho, turned to the only emergency option left, Earth. It was not the first time that Patriotic Aid was raised in China, Korea and Japan, though this time it proved most underwhelming. As the call for help fell on ears of men that could not even help their own economies, the trophy colony had to be abandoned to its own devices, with many in the East Asian public accusing Konyangers of greed and forgetting them in their apogee of financial success. With this last link to the past cut off, the question and possibility of independence soon started circling.<br />
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There was no time for serious debate however, with the Alliance being plunged into rebellion and collapse. On November 12, the 58th Fleet hastily departed Konyang, declaring a state of emergency in the system and abandoning the colonial government to its fate. Only elements of the Solarian Army and the Constabularies remained to maintain order, themselves being composed almost entirely of local Konyanger enlisted. The situation immediately turned into unrest, as public sentiment against the ineptitude of the Alliance boiled over into the streets. Massive student protests saw the storming of public buildings and central plazas in every major town and city, demanding a sharp reduction to the cost of living, IPC emancipation and a barring of the 58th Fleet from returning. Government reaction was mild, limited to the prevention of damages and protection of private property. Hyun Kyung-Ho was otherwise sympathetic to the students’ cause, sparking outrage within groups of Alliance-minded Army officers and Einstein corporate elites, who sought to prevent any secession of Konyang.<br />
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Thus, on November 15 2462, elements of the Army garrison under Lieutenant General Jiang Hongbing mobilized against the wishes of the Governor, taking up key positions in Suwon and Point Verdant. The mutinous 8th Sappers infiltrated the historic SUWON beacon telecommunications complex, preparing the country for a silent coup and preventing any long range communications with Sol. Jiang Hongbing, inspired by actions of mutinous admirals, took it upon himself to restore Konyang to the Alliance by marching the Army into the streets. While some of the formations under his command were willing to participate, the vast majority refused to bear arms against the Konyanger Governor or the student movements. In the following day, an internal power struggle saw many officers confined to their quarters, with Army hardliners being arrested, chased off or even assaulted in their own barracks as a loyalist armored brigade blocked access to the Governor’s House, preventing Hongbing’s men from touching Hyun Kyung-Ho.<br />
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With the coup’s inglorious end visible, the Governor’s staff were racing into negotiations with diplomatic officers from Coalition of Colonies still in the country for an express accession into the Coalition, following Konyang’s independence. Jiang Hongbing’s associates surrendered, himself fleeing into the thick jungles of Boryeong Prefecture, declaring a patriotic struggle in the Alliance’s name before soon being betrayed and confined at the 58th base’s Brig. On November 24 2462, telecommunications were restored, and Konyanger independence was broadcast to the world. The country’s preliminary accession into the Coalition was soon after announced, turning a new leaf in Konyang’s history. While the news was received with muted reaction from a confused Alliance government with more pressing matters to handle, the secession of Konyang was a huge blow to the three parent countries. After Governor Hyun Kyung-Ho assembled the nation’s intellectuals, economic and political figures, it was decided that he would remain in place as independent Konyang’s first Governor to organize free elections and set up the foundations for a democratic state.<br />
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Now, as a free Konyang comes out to the world stage, strong government initiative has seen its large synthetic factories nationalized, rapidly introducing legislation to establish the relationship with Einstein Engines. While they still are the dominating megacorporation on the planet, Einstein has lost most of its heavy industry, though still retaining the important research facilities around the vaults, as well as a good portion of software and positronic brain creation.<br />
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==Location and Environment==<br />
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===The Haneunim System===<br />
The Haneunim System, centered around the yellow star it is named for, Haneunim, contains four major celestial bodies, including the planet of Konyang. The whole system bears evidence of ancient mining operations, missing an asteroid belt to separate the inner and outer system with what few rocks remain being mostly picked clean of minerals. The innermost planet is known as Huozhu and remains practically inaccessible due to the scorching heat of Haneunim. Following it is Hwanung , an insignificant dwarf planet believed to have maintained a thin arid atmosphere before most of its mass was artificially stripped away. The third planet in the System is Konyang, accompanied by its lifeless moon of Qixi. Shiranui, a blue gas giant with a ring, is the outermost planet from Haneunim. An asteroid belt, far to the outskirts and composed mostly of ice, forms a ring around the entire system, although this remains largely unexploited by both the Konyanger government and local corporations. It is instead the stomping ground of both refugees fleeing the Sol Wildlands, and the pirates that seek to prey on them.<br />
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===Geography===<br />
[[File:Konyang_map_sat.png|A geographic map of Konyang, showcasing the planet's different biomes. |thumb|800px]]<br />
Primarily a tropical world smaller than Earth, Konyang boasts a mean radius of 5,111 kilometers. Freshwater oceans cover upwards of 88% of the planet’s surface. These oceans also grant Konyang its signature green color when viewed from orbit, in no small part thanks to the abundant presence of moss in the planet’s waterways. The planet’s continents are classified by its larger landmasses and island chains, although given the tides, the planet remains studded with small island chains and archipelagos that ebb and flow with the season. Two small ice caps exist on Konyang where the planet experiences a miniscule amount of snowfall and cold climates. The Konyanger terrain is principally mountainous, with large ranges covering vast areas of the planet’s landmasses. The tallest peak belongs to Mount Sansin, the highest mountain standing at a record 13.890 meters above sea level, its base forming an island of its own. Flanking the mountains are usually lush jungles, present in almost every island and continent in varying densities. This means that settlements have to be located in clearings adjacent to the coastline, on terrain with relatively even elevation. The largest and most dense jungle is located in Bukupo, an island in the heart of the Boryeong Prefecture. The largest landmass on the planet is Cheomseongtang, home of the Suwon prefecture and the nation’s capital. Other notable landmasses are the Oshima islands, hosting the largest mountain ranges, as well as the Yu islands, home of the only biome that could be described as a desert. New Hokkaido is the largest northernmost territory, renowned for its biodiversity and frosty tundra due to its proximity to the planet’s pole, as well as a unique lack of jungles. It is administered directly by the Government of Konyang, being the site of many scientific expeditions and military exercises, only boasting a population of a few hundred people.<br />
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===Environment===<br />
[[File:Konyang.png|An image of Konyang, displaying mossy oceans and algae-covered water as the face of the planet. |thumb]]<br />
Konyang features a highly atypical environment for a habitable planet: it is entirely freshwater. The surface of the planet is primarily oceans, with estimates placing upwards of 88% of the planet as covered in water. What is not under the sea are the islands of Konyang, where the vast majority of its population lives. These islands follow a general pattern: a small coastal area and a large mountain range ringing the island. The freshwater oceans of Konyang feature a remarkable diverse biosphere, and Konyang underwater flora, such as freshwater moss, is often used in the planet's native dishes and exported offworld, as far afield as Sol and Tau Ceti. Konyang is defined by two seasons: wet, lasting nine months, and dry, lasting three months.<br />
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The coastal regions of Konyang represent the smallest regions of its islands, but contain upwards of 90% of the planet's population. Often called the "coastal jungles" of Konyang, these areas are extremely wet - flooding is an issue in many areas, though the bulk of populated and urban areas are protected by extensive flood protection infrastructure, primarily lengthy complexes of walls. Coastal areas feature a wealth of plant and animal life, both of which have been put under stress by the rapid expansion of Konyang's cities.<br />
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Although Konyang’s coastal waters are often tinted green from moss, even more so than its oceans, harvesting and cleanup efforts along the coasts of the main and important islands have resulted in some sections of the planet appearing blue. These areas are often exploited for settlements and as tourist destinations for their scenic looks, while dedicated seaweed and algae farms dot the planet, providing an income for local villages and traditional producers. The most famous Konyanger food exporter, Go-Go Gwok!, has the largest involvement in the moss and seaweed industry.<br />
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The inland mountain ranges of Konyang can be up to several kilometers in height in some areas, with smaller foothills featuring some rare settlements leading up to them. These ranges, which lack valuable minerals completely due to Glorsh-era mining, are the reason for Konyang's jungles - they form an effective rain shadow. Some mountains have what is assumed to be collapsed mines in them, deactivated drones scattered throughout.<br />
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A phenomenon unique to the easternmost Yu islands of the Ganzaodeng prefecture, inland deserts are created due to the rain shadow caused by the surrounding mountain ranges. These are the least populated areas of the planet. Extraordinarily dry, little grows or lives in these environments. Rare Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals facilities can be found in this area, taking advantage of the isolation and relatively sterile environment that the inland deserts offer.<br />
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Lastly, the oceans of Konyang are regularly stormy, the large waves being harnessed for their energy in electricity production at numerous such outposts, scattered throughout the unpopulated islets in the farthest and most secluded areas.<br />
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===Flora and Fauna===<br />
Wildlife on Konyang is a peculiar mix of its original environment and the thousands of invasive species introduced by Human colonization. Species introduced in the initial colonization of the planet include huge herbivores and peaceful, if ecologically destructive, wildlife. Additionally, the large oceans are host to an uncountable number of species of fish, crustaceans and aquatic molluscs, with many being unique to their region of origin. Flora on Konyang is among its most famed aspects, spearheaded by the mossy shores and overgrowth which covers the vast majority of its visible terrain. All plant life which survives on Konyang must survive the extremely damp environment, and as such either thrives in the water, or is capable of moving away from it. Konyang's waters are famously covered in green moss and seaweed, giving it its signature color when viewed from orbit.<br />
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Some examples of unique flora and fauna are:<br />
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'''Shelfers'''<br />
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In the marsh and lowlands of Konyang's algae coasts resides an invasive species of large omnivores known as '''Shelfers.''' These are gluttonous moss-feasting beasts, with a distinct six-legged and bloated appearance. They are excellent swimmers, owed to webbed joints and a wedge shaped, slick head. From this, it uses a set of large protruding teeth to scrape moss and undersea growths. This creature is endangered, and displayed as a national animal thanks to its unique appearance. Originally a danger to unprepared colonization, these gained a reputation for its tendency to attack colonists.<br />
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These were first encountered by colonists who had shipped wildlife to and from Arusha, where escaped subjects managed to reproduce- over the years becoming a cultural icon due to their miraculous beneficial place they have in Konyang's ecosystem.<br />
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'''Konyanger Jeweler Cockatoo'''<br />
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Known for its affinity to decorate its nesting grounds with surface-level pearls and gems of all sorts is an opportunistic carnivore, the '''Jeweler Cockatoo.''' This large avian is an offshoot of the Earth parrot, bred originally to “liven the landscape” of Konyang’s dreary inner mountainous lands. Eventually, with the assistance of high-level genetic modification, they grew to giant proportions whilst maintaining the health and lifestyle of a standard - ''if highly dangerous'' - parrot. <br />
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Where small patches of forest and barrens clash, these birds thrive and craft beautiful roosts in the relative safety of open fields. In these fields, diminutive predators avoid the large avian’s glare (or don’t, and are frequently preyed upon.) The Jeweler Cockatoo possesses two sharp talons on one digit of each of its feet, and a short - but unbelievably sharp beak, refined further by its tendency to dig. The wingspan of these birds can grow up to fifteen feet.<br />
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The Jeweler Cockatoo is the national bird of Konyang, with many stylized imagery depicting the bird in some shape or form.<br />
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'''Glittering Konyang Moss'''<br />
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Found in vast plains of coastal territories in excess is the overflowing, yet precious resource of '''Konyang moss.''' One of its primary exports, this barely-tapped commodity retains a huge capacity to feed Konyang’s already sturdy ecosystem, and the billions which reside upon it, and more to export. The evolutionary process which grew this mystical, shimmering moss is a mystery, however its luster and fields of green it generates has a wonderful impact on sustaining Konyang’s moist, overgrown and greenery-rich habitat. <br />
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Konyang moss is pivotal to its moving industries, and even after the robotics boom, it remains a stable source of incoming development for the since-burgeoning planet. The moss’ nutritional properties have been highly studied in recent decades. Its rapid pace of growth is exclusive to Konyang’s ecological circumstances, with everything from subterranean heat, to the algae present in its beautiful green seas factoring in.<br />
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==Economy==<br />
While young, the nation of Konyang boasts a powerful regional economy built upon decades of trade with both the Alliance and various Coalition partners. A developed country, Konyang manages to surpass its near total lack of ore with robust exports of foodstuff and energy, a strong shipping industry and a powerful robotics sector.<br />
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===Raw Materials===<br />
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[[File:Konyang dam.png|thumb|Dams and sea walls are a common sight on Konyang, used to protect cities and population centres from floods and tsunamis, as well as to exploit the violent waves for electricity.]]<br />
Konyang's freshwater oceans were perhaps the largest boon to the starting colonists, and continues to play a substantial role behind the planet's exports. Fishing provides for a large aspect of the domestic economy, with millions of fishing boats and trawlers scouring the shores and oceans for all kinds of fish, crustaceans and other aquatic creatures, of which a complete list doesn't exist. Such is the biodiversity in Konyang's waters, that each region has its own fish markets which serve clients all over the planet and the Spur. Besides fishing, Konyang's biggest aquatic produce in terms of volume belongs to its enormous seaweed and moss harvesting industries. Entire ships are purpose-built for collecting wild greenery which floats on the high seas and the bays of Konyang, bringing in billions in offworld exports and domestic sales. The harvesting of moss is not exclusive to the sea and the aquatic farms either, as many edible varieties are collected inland, both in the planet's jungles and mountain ranges. Konyanger moss is Spur-renowned thanks to powerful marketing campaigns and the spread of the planet's cuisine.<br />
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With tremendously stormy wet seasons lasting most of the year, it is no surprise that Konyanger corporations have attempted and managed to harness the energy of the wind, waves and waters of the planet. Electricity is generated through a network of dams, hydroelectric plants, wave power stations and tidal power stations, all dotted across the vast shores and oceans of Konyang. The electricity produced is then either stored in super capacitors, or is directly wired inland through thick underwater cables, catering to the needs of virtually every power grid on the globe. Much of it is also transported on board space freighters lined with rows of large batteries, ready to make the journey to Alliance and Coalition worlds as part of the lucrative electricity export industry.<br />
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Lastly, Konyang excells in the export of water and timber. The continent-spanning untouched jungles provide an excellent source of wood for foreign markets as well as domestic construction, of which there is very heavy use in lieu of metal structures. The freshwater is also extremely easy to chemically filter, skipping any desalination process before being bottled or shipped as-is on board of one of many of Konyang's water barges; large hollow space vessels with tankers and pools for water storage.<br />
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===Maritime Shipping===<br />
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Surface shipping is another one of the main forces behind Konyang's domestic market economy, and an inseparable part of the nation's maritime culture. The docks and shipyards of New Hong Kong are the beating heart of the sector, which provides employment to more than 20% of the entire planet's population. Entire towns were formed and dedicated to housing the laborers and their families close to the coast, and many islands subsist entirely off of seamen's salaries and work at nearby electricity stations. Surface shipping, while slower, is a lot more economical for planetary moving of goods across the continents and islands of Konyang, being preferred to airlifting or orbital shuttling. Aside from the creation of jobs and the transportation of goods, Konyang's shipping industry produces excellent sailors who can rival those of planets such as Europa, many of whom eventually transition to space.<br />
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===Robotics and Services===<br />
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Ever since the robotics boom, Konyang has become a major player in the export and development of IPCs and everything surrounding them. Each year, the most cutting edge technologies catered to the improvement of the life of synthetics are released by Konyanger software companies, often to critical acclaim. This is because of the the substantial positronic population, free and eager to spend on such innovations that allow them to experience the world in a more human-like fashion. When it comes to the export of IPCs, Einstein Engines remains the prime manufacturer of chassis and positronic brains, which are shipped abroad without being activated. The practice, while putting Konyang on the map as one of the big regional producers of synthetics, is a hotly contested area between deeply entrenched corporate interests and an increasingly politically aware IPC populace. Non-positronic robotics are a separate, but once significant part of the economy, with Konyang having hoeld high places in the spur leaderboards for the making of robots, mechs, pAIs and automated systems. This sector however, took a major hit as the robotics boom slowly deflated, leaving behind abandoned industrial complexes and derelict factories.<br />
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The nation's service sector has to be one of the biggest ones, contributing a sizeable portion of the country's Gross Domestic Product. Many of the companies listed on the Suwon Stock Exchange are everything from financial consultation firms, to insurance agencies, housed in every majpr city's financial district. Skyscrapers and office complexes in downtown Suwon, Point Verdant and New Hong Kong are a daily reminder of the office life millions of Konyangers live, and many parents dream of their child being able to one day find employment in a top law firm or such. While mostly concentrated in the domestic market, many of these companies have expanded their services abroad, building a reputation of Konyanger reliability and impeccable work.<br />
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===Konyanger Corporations===<br />
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In terms of the traditional megacorporations, the undoubted hegemon remains Einstein Engines, entrenched in the planet's life since the beginning of Konyang's colonization. The megacorporation owns a number of subsidiaries on the planet in many different sectors, most notably, Terraneus Diagnostics, which regularly bankrolls and invests in government initiatives in exchange for their continuous presence. It retains the original research facilities and control over the vaults, even if IPC production and exports are now handled by the Konyang Robotics Corporation, a public company in which Einstein controls a 49% stake. The Terraneus facilities on the planet mainly handle shell research and positronic brain production for export to the Coalition, while they occasionally butt heads with Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals in the realm of IPC research. Zeng-Hu has the second-largest megacorporate presence, mainly in biosphere research and sales of pharmaceuticals. Despite this, local conglomerates generally dominate the country’s financial sector, commanding the government’s cooperation and good graces in order to keep a stable economy. Upon achieving independence, Konyang has managed to maintain a strong presence of homegrown corporations in the fields of agriculture, media, energy and consumer goods.<br />
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'''PACHROM'''<br />
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A chemical and engineering corporation, PACHROM builds, maintains and manages eighty percent of all private dams, hydroelectric plants and seawalls on Konyang, as well as engaging in the field of chemicals and plastics production. Headed by Park Moon-soo, the business mogul is vying for influence with the government as indispensable to the nation’s energy output and defence against floods and natural disasters, making the “Pachrom Parks” one of the richest and most powerful business dynasties on the planet. Headquartered in central Suwon, the bulk of PACHROM’s operations are located in diasporic, uninhabited islands in the middle of the world’s oceans, where hundreds of organic and synthetic workmen toil daily to run the water powered electricity plants in extremely dangerous conditions.<br />
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The company’s notorious reputation for neglecting the safety of its employees and the environmental disregard for waste disposal from its plastics factories has been a big stain the Parks have struggled to wash off. While their ties to both the Alliance administration and the Konyang government have proven instrumental in their ability to dodge damning legal action, demonstrations of public outcry are a common feature in and around the street opposite the PACHROM office complex. To counter this, public relations campaigns are a constant focus, with tens of millions being spent in portraying them in a positive light. Charities are a large part of the Park family’s social presence, sponsoring public works and offering scholarships mainly in the Boryeong and New Hong Kong prefectures, where the majority of employees originate.<br />
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Often finding itself without funds from Unity Station, the colonial administration would commission PACHROM in the form of lucrative contracts for the construction of dams and power stations, allowing the utilisation of synthetics and IPC for the dangerous labour required. Due to society’s favourable opinion towards positronic intelligence, the multitude of cases of IPC fatalities would be swept under the rug with government assistance, creating a culture of tolerance towards lacklustre safety features and general disregard. Today, PACHROM’s future remains uncertain as the newly independent state of Konyang wishes tends to distance itself from its shaky past, a fact indicated by the recent awarding of the Kaneyama nuclear plant to the public company GON-ENE.<br />
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'''Gwok Group'''<br />
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Founded in the early 2410s with the name Hyeonsang Foods, the precursor to today’s multinational food conglomerate was the first attempt at commercialising Konyang’s seaweed and moss both for export and internal consumption. Initially finding limited success due to an overly competitive local market and foreign consumers' reluctance to the Konyanger novelty, the company's defining moment arrived during the robotics boom, launching them from mediocrity into the billion credit business stage.<br />
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As Einstein Engines staff poured into Point Verdant, Hyeonsang secured a contract from the megacorporation's local branch for providing meals and miscellaneous catering to workers and research staff. The once alienated Einstein employees would soon come around, praising the brand for its flavourful seasoning and convenience, eventually spreading the word to Einstein facilities and back home. By the late 40s, Hyeonsang was on the track of significant financial success, having secured a large foothold in the foreign dominated central districts of Point Verdant.<br />
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Rebranding into the more consumer friendly “Gwok” name in 2452, the company’s reputation abroad led to the opening of regional branches in the Solarian middle and core worlds, generating an increasingly massive amount of income, used for an aggressive takeover of the local Konyanger market. By buying off competitors, monopolising the moss and seaweed industry and introducing new marketing, Gwok’s domestic success was soon guaranteed as the primary supplier of supermarkets. In 2454 the IPC Gwok-0783, until then a senior executive and the face of the company as the main influencer of the rebrand, assumed direct control as CEO of the conglomerate thus becoming the first IPC in charge of a billion credit corporation in Sol space. The following years would see the consolidation of all affiliated assets and filial companies under an umbrella Gwok Group, topping the charts and establishing a farming, food and restaurant chain empire.<br />
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'''Konymation'''<br />
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Konymation represents the peak of the Konyanger animated media scene, being by far the most successful and most well known studio in the country, with a Spur-wide fame. It arose in the early days of the robotics boom, creating a resurgency of animations for both children and adults. While the industry was almost non-existent and cheap Solarian cartoons were the norm, a group of inspired artists came together to animate and direct the first feature-length production from Konyang, using native voice actors and a brand new artstyle of their own. The result was "One Day in my Life", a slice of life film following the daily routine of an IPC secretary in a human-dominated world, becoming an instant hit with both domestic and foreign audiences. Since then, Konymation rose to become the largest studio of quality animations, creating films and series for all ages and of all genres. Such was the success, that any animated pieces from Konyang have passed into the public consciousness simply as "Konymations", referred to as such in both the planet and abroad. Since their foundation, the studio has developed into a media conglomerate, buying out holoscreen channels, online platforms, news networks and more.<br />
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'''Mujigae Publishing'''<br />
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The biggest publishing house, Mujigae is to the comic book industry what Konymation is to animation. Having created thousands of interesting and touching comic series, Mujigae is credited with bringing paper back into the hands of millions of Konyangers, in an age where digital platforms have become the default for nearly everything in life. Many of Mujigae's works find great demand abroad as well as at home, with the company being known for their efforts to constantly seek out and recruit new artists with fresh ideas. A plethora of published series often find themselves being adapted into the holoscreen in lucrative partnerships with Konymation, as well as the other way around. Additionally, Mujigae's philanthropic work cannot go unmentioned; millions of credits have found their way to various charities on Konyang, primarily those regarding the children, the money drawn from art festivals and comicons that are hosted annually, often with the participation of the Ministry of Culture. <br />
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'''Konyang Robotics Corporation'''<br />
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The Konyang Robotics Corporation, or KRC as is more commonly known, is the country's largest government-controlled company centered around the manufacture, maintenance and welfare of the nation's positronic population. Borrowing heavily from Einstein know-how and infrastructure, it originated from the nationalization of Einstein and Terraneus IPC factories, with the majority of their employees swapping over to a government payroll. Einstein Engines controls 49% of the shares of the company, lending it tremendous behind-the-scenes influence on Konyang's synthetic population.<br />
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The primary function of the KRC is the production, storage and activation of IPC citizens. A very politically and socially sensitive topic, great care is placed by the government through the Ministry of Health and Positronic Affairs to meticulously calculate and order the amount of yearly activations, so as to maintain the Human-IPC ratio and meet the demands of the job market. To that effect, the KRC also acts as a sort of "school" for the newly activated IPC citizens, with special orientation camps where synthetics are taught about Konyanger society before released to the world.<br />
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Furthermore, the KRC acts as the primary health provider for Konyanger IPCs, with clinics and hospitals situated in every town and city, as well as strategically placed in certain villages in the countryside. Thousands of roboticists, engineers and software technicians are employed by the KRC to act as the equivalents of surgeons, physicians, nurses and paramedics for the IPC population, who are afforded universal healthcare through the KRC. Appointment times are dependent on location and the capacity of the clinic or hospital, with many in more remote areas having to wait months for limb replacements and other, more heavy duty needs that cannot be met by their local KRC center.<br />
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'''GON-ENE'''<br />
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GON-ENE is a newly formed, state-controlled energy utilities company, created following the announcement of the Kaneyama Nuclear Power Plant. Perceived as a direct competitor to PACHROM, GON-ENE has been planned to expand into hydroelectric and wave power, giving the government a greater control of the nation's power grid and cutting back reliance on privately-owned sector, though complete autarky is off the table for at least many decades.<br />
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==Government==<br />
''Main Article: [[Konyanger Government and Politics#Government|Konyanger Government]]''<br />
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Konyang is organized as a unitary semi-parliamentary republic headed by a President, the former colonial governor Hyun Kyung-Ho being elected to the position after independence. The Prime Minister is elected by the citizenry every four years, and is the leader of the governing party in the Parliament of Konyang. The current Prime Minister is Myeong Myung-Dae.<br />
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Planetary politics are found on both a national and prefectural level, with every party running in local and national elections. Polarization is fairly limited, the vast majority of Konyangers rejecting the extreme views put forward by radical political movements in the country that tend to be marginalized. IPC politicians do exist and are found in every major party, though most can be seen sitting with the National Party of Konyang.<br />
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===Military===<br />
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[[File:Marine.png|thumb|right|An IPC Konyanger Naval Infantryman in full gear.]]<br />
Konyang’s military, also known as the Konyang Armed Forces, was first formed shortly after the colony’s independence from personnel of the former Solarian garrison. As a result, it carries a lot of the traditions of the Solarian Armed Forces. Bolstered by conscription laws requiring both organic and synthetic citizens one year of mandatory service, the KAF possesses Army, Navy and Aerospace branches. IPCs are actively recruited and accepted into the military, forming both their own and deployed in mixed units. This segregation is justified by the government as based solely on the differentiating capabilities, logistical needs and skills between man and machine.<br />
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That claim does hold true to an extent, with IPCs taking a more active role in special forces formations, dealing with operations requiring levels of precision and focus that artificial intelligence can easily provide. A famous example is the army’s Mechatronic Corps, an elite unit utilising large, leftover battle mechs retrofitted for a pair of pilots. Such a force is unique in the Coalition, and is often used abroad in operations under broader CoC military command. Mixed infantry units of conscripts do exist, fielded in jungle patrol tasks or assigned garrison duty.<br />
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Notably for a 25th century military, the Navy maintains a very large aquatic force which it uses to patrol the vast oceans of the planet. Regularly described as more of a coast guard than a military arm, it is more geared for domestic policing than combat, consisting mostly of ships acting as launching points for many smaller, coast guard type vessels that patrol the vast expanse of the planet’s waterways and launch military aircraft. Nevertheless, it provides important services with its multiple telecommunication, radar and island outposts, providing crucial meteorological information for everyday seafaring and flood prevention on a planet where storms and extreme weather are the norm.<br />
<br />
The Konyang Aerospace Forces perform both atmospheric and orbital operations with their doctrine clearly influenced by former Solarian officers within their ranks. Their fleet consist of obsolete vessels donated by Coalition planets, partially brought up to a modern standard by the planet’s technology and manufacturing sector. In 2465, the KASF’s main tasks include protecting the system from pirates and policing the large influx of refugees from the Human Wildlands, regularly pushing them to other planets within the Coalition as per Konyang’s strict migration laws.<br />
<br />
</div></div><br />
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
===National Police===<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
[[File:Konyanger Police Ranks.png|thumb|In order to organize the National Police and smooth cooperation between prefectures, a unified rank structure was adopted shortly after its formation.]]<br />
Despite its federal nature, the main law enforcement agency on the planet is the National Police, formed after Konyang’s independence from the merging of a number of local and specialised agencies under the then Solarian authority. One major change since then has been the introduction of synthetic officers in all positions and ranks, while also creating special divisions suited best for them. Police gear remains rather antiquated for the era, the force still using old Solarian equipment and stocks from the colonial garrison, meaning that much of the tactics and thinking remain unchanged. Considered tame by Alliance standards, the National Police places an emphasis on preventative policing, building rapport with local communities, and relying on a sense of civic duty from the populace to perform its duties. Despite this, the National Police has nonetheless received criticism for occasional incidents of corruption and brutality, mostly against synthetic citizens. This is more common in remote departments and conservative prefectures, where the sudden inclusiveness of synthetic officers with equal pay and opportunities is seen as a threat. Such incidents aside, government efforts for the modernisation of the National Police are ongoing.<br />
<br />
The police is subject to the Ministry of Public Safety in Suwon and is organised at the national level, with local departments answering to the assigned hierarchy in their prefecture. Special divisions are deployed to deal with various policing duties, their size ranging from a whole new branch to Special Robotics detachments specialising in detainment of volatile synthetic suspects. The largest of these subdivisions and arguably the most important, the Coast Guard is the maritime arm of the National Police, operating a fleet of shore and sea patrol vessels in their mission to enforce the law at the huge array of islands and in Konyang’s waters. As the planet is surrounded by oceans, the Coast Guard has proven itself essential to the battle against smuggling and piracy while also assuming search and rescue duties during flooding, tsunamis and other catastrophes. The National Police has also gained Coalition-wide acclaim for its Special Robotics Division - a task force known for its expertise in detaining IPC without causing permanent damage.<br />
</div></div><br />
<br />
==Culture==<br />
''Main article: [[Konyanger_Culture_and_Demographics|Konyanger Culture]]''<br />
<br />
Konyang’s culture has been shaped by its East Asian Earther heritage, unique status as a colony with little to no resources, and as the birthplace of positronics. Konyanger society is often described as closed-off, with many unspoken social norms that vary from prefecture to prefecture. Key social norms that are shared in Konyang’s culture are Harmony, Reciprocity, and Face. Often derided as “meekness”, Harmony refers to enforcing unity and conformity within society. The specific manifestations vary from prefecture to prefecture, but in general, individuals who disrupt a sense of peace can face social ostracization. For instance, explicit disagreement such as using the word “no” is considered impolite, and a non-answer is often far more acceptable. Harmony also refers to a person’s social role; respect should be shown to people of a higher status, usually along traditional lines such as age, profession, and experience.<br />
<br />
===Media===<br />
''Main article: [[Konyanger_Culture_and_Demographics#Media|Media]]''<br />
<br />
Public media in Konyang is a powerful industry, and as broad as it may seem, it is very tightly knit. Aside from galactic-wide reruns and broadcasts of other nation’s shows, little seems to stand out - except the audio broadcast and illustrated artistic avenues. These two are well-refined artistic giants compared to other forms of entertainment on the planet.<br />
<br />
A huge portion of the planet’s political views and very “personality” are channeled through its larger studios, where many are found enthused to spread its culture galaxy-wide.<br />
<br />
===Cuisine===<br />
The primary diet of Konyangers consists of moss, seaweed and fish, with farms and pastures on land being rare due to the thick jungle. Konyang's moss is either harvested in the wild, grown in "natural" hydrofarms, or grown synthetically in bioplants. The moss itself is said to change its taste depending on the environment in which it is grown, and natural moss from the coasts around Konyang's islands is highly prized. Exports of moss and seaweed are a very lucrative business, held primarily by the galaxy-famous Go-Go Gwok! brand. Many workers, however, must make do with hydrofarm moss at best, and synthetic substitutes at worst. Konyang's fish - quite diverse, due to its freshwater environments - are also often consumed on the planet, with many being exported as luxury food as far afield as Venus and Tau Ceti. More conventional but water-intensive crops such as rice and other tropical fruits are also grown to a certain extent but are considered a rarity.<br />
<br />
The planet is also home to a thriving beverages industry, with local varieties of algae providing the basis of a light but thick alcoholic drink colloquially known as “Nong jiu” domestically and abroad. The wide selection of produce on the planet however means more traditional drinks are produced, typically drawing from their Earther roots and commonly based on rice. Some of these drinks are exported by local businesses such as Go-Go Gwok! while Zeng-Hu has wrestled to control some of these brands in an attempt to stop them from competing with their own lineups.<br />
<br />
===Synthetic Cuisine===<br />
Synthetic-unique cuisine is an unusual case in the Spur, but not for Konyang. Here, robots utilize gustatorial implants to - if inefficiently - consume, or at least “taste” food regularly. Indeed, there is an entire market for synthfood where robots can enjoy their own form of taste, texture and uniquely perceptive flavor for foods. Mostly, synthfood is described as a thick slime, one with varying additives for color. Texture is mostly a simulated process within gustatorial implants, given they are not always present on tongues alone - meaning that the actual texture of these synthfoods remains the same gooey substance.<br />
<br />
''One can achieve a similar substance to these synthfoods mechanically by grinding certain foods into paste, or utilizing candy machines with your choice of ingredients and output.''<br />
<br />
==Organized Crime==<br />
<br />
=====Benevolent Guild=====<br />
The Benevolent Guild is a criminal organisation operating primarily within the decrepit, dark shadows of New Hong Kong. Originating as a mutual aid society for low income and forced penal colonists shipped into New Hong Kong by the Alliance government, it developed into a ruthless crime syndicate with strong ties to the local lower class community. From the start, the tightly knit communal and familial ties have played an important role in preserving the gang’s power and shielding them from police action. Only in recent years has any meaningful progress been made, the allocation of governmental resources and the increasingly violent and profit-oriented tactics of the Guild having alienated much of the younger generation, chipping away at the once widely popular support.<br />
<br />
Starting with extortion and loan sharking, the Benevolent Guild rapidly expanded into gambling, drugs and violent crime such as kidnapping both in New Hong Kong and in New Kowloon. It is not uncommon for synthetics that find themselves victims of the group’s loan shark tactics to be ‘collected’ as collateral damage and subsequently carted off to whichever corner of the Orion Spur where their new owners await them usually at a far cheaper rate than elsewhere. One of the few institutions on Konyang refusing to admit synthetics owing to a deeply conservative and spiritually esoteric internal ideology, a pragmatist outlook often compels them to deal with and even cooperate with IPC politicians, police and rival gangs. Connections with criminal organisations in the wider Spur have been confirmed to exist, as various crime syndicates in Xanu, New Hai Phong and Luna are known to be in connection with the Benevolent Guild.<br />
<br />
=====5-Cheung=====<br />
Emerging as one of the strongest IPC/organic street gangs of Suwon, the 5-Cheung numbers in the thousands of members in the cities of the Suwon and Point Verdant prefectures. The organisation’s origin as a loose collective of delinquents and fringe elements has since developed into a nationwide crime family with a powerful hierarchy fielding biker gangs and thugs to enforce their tight grip on the underworld. With a black repertoire of gambling, extortion, money laundering and narcotics, the 5-Cheung is considered a main rival to the Benevolent Guild of New Hong Kong, the two frequently coming to blows in a series of wars and uneasy truces over control of turf and general competition.<br />
<br />
An open secret in the country’s political sphere has the 5-Cheung profit lucratively from corruption in the highest levels of government and police. During the Solarian era, prominent politicians employed protection from the 5-Cheung, soliciting their services in voter swaying, intimidation of opposition members and violent disruption of rallies and demonstrators. This has given the gang a justified reputation for being the political soldiers of ruling dynasties and representing the authorities in the underworld and on the street in exchange for immunity from prosecution. Following Konyang’s independence, the reformed National Police retained a virtually unchanged staff while the nation’s same prominent political families, now unshackled from Alliance oversight, enjoy even more freedom. As such, it is safe to say that 5-Cheung’s entrenched position will continue to remain untouched aside from the occasional drug bust and arrest of low level members.<br />
<br />
=====Sea Bandits=====<br />
Although both the previous colonial administration and the nascent Konyanger Armed Forces and Coast Guard have tried to stamp out piracy, the sheer expanse of the planet means that groups of what the authorities call “sea bandits” continue to infest the waters and orbit of Konyang. Ranging from small motor boats launched from fishing villages with nothing more than an antique rifle, to retrofitted probes salvaged from the refugee waves pouring into the system, piracy is one of the most pressing social and security issues faced by the newly formed nation.<br />
<br />
Individual pirate groups usually number no greater than twenty people but the Sea Bandits as a whole operate as a wider criminal network inclusive of individuals and crews from all over the planet. By coordinating their activities and intelligence through encrypted sites, the organisation manages to both evade and stay one step ahead of the authorities. Most of their activities take the form of kidnapping, armed robbery of craft and hijacking unescorted seafarers, while admittedly avoiding the busiest and well guarded sealanes and locations. The most audacious raid by the Sea Bandits to date involved the boarding and ransoming of a cruise ship by the use of an unregistered freighter. Although only circumstantial evidence has been uncovered, Golden Deep Zaibatsu have also been accused of working with Sea Bandit groups by launching probes full of narcotics, to be recovered by the pirates.<br />
<br />
==Synthetics on Konyang==<br />
As the origin of the integrated positronic chassis now found throughout the Orion Spur, Konyang has always had a quite unique relationship with IPCs, the IPC population constituting a staggering 34% of the total population. While IPCs throughout the Sol Alliance are often looked upon as little more than property, tools, or novelties depending upon their frame those found upon Konyang possessed a notably greater degree of autonomy and freedom before the planet’s secession from the rest of the Alliance, achieving full and unconditional freedom afterwards. Legal ownership of synthetics within the borders of the Republic does not exist, the Emancipation Act constituting one of the first acts passed by Parliament. IPCs can work wherever they like, live however they please within the confines of the law, and partake in politics by voting or being elected. As such, foreigners are repeatedly cautioned to not bring any privately held IPCs with them, for they cannot be forced to return unwillingly.<br />
<br />
Ordinary Konyangers, as a result of the planet’s liberal outlook on positronics, possess a more positive view of synthetics than other humans in the Orion Spur - particularly those from the Sol Alliance and its former territories. The majority of people on Konyang view IPCs as amicable colleagues and neighbours, with many friendships between man and machine being established. Closer bonds such as marriage are also legalised and not unheard of, though not without outcries from the more conservative spectrum. Many scholars theorize that this is due to the prevalence of IPCs in daily life on Konyang, seamlessly blending into society, in addition to the pride many citizens have in their planet being the origin of the modern positronic. Konyang’s integration of IPCs stands with some degree of contrast to Biesel’s, with the large synthetic ghetto of District 14 segregating many synthetics from the average citizen of the Republic of Biesel.<br />
<br />
With Konyang’s independence, IPCs share full legal equality with all organic citizens of the planet. This concession was given, both as an acknowledgement and acceptance of the fact that synthetics have become part of everyday life in the colony and are generally accepted by its inhabitants. Unlike the Republic of Biesel, IPCs in Konyang seek to assimilate into human society, with IPCs being given the choice to adopt a second, “human name” before receiving citizenship. A human name can range from an entirely new name, to adding a first or last name of any kind to their existing designation.<br />
<br />
Many positronics can be found within the economy of Konyang with perhaps the most famous (or infamous) one being Gwok-0783 (now Kim Gwok-0783, under post-independence IPC naming conventions), the owner and operator of her very own food conglomerate in the form of Go-Go Gwok! Authentic Konyanger Moss. As Go-Go Gwok! is technically an interstellar corporation, Gwok-0783 herself relied on a series of legal loopholes centered around Konyang’s former IPC laws to maintain control of the company when Konyang was still in the Sol Alliance. Examples such as Gwok, with her control of an inter-planetary corporation, are fairly rare. However, many positronics have made a successful name for themselves as small business owners and corporate workers on Konyang.<br />
[[File:Konyang vault.png|thumb|A mysterious vault upon Konyang's surface, unearthed and built around with monitoring infrastructure.]]<br />
Due to the system’s bluespace gate, many members of [[Synthetic_Factions#The_Golden_Deep|Golden Deep]] have secured permits to operate, as it allows their vessels to more easily make the journey from the frontier to the more lucrative markets of Tau Ceti and the Jewel Worlds. The money and business brought into the system by these synthetic traders has - arguably - been a major contributor to Konyang’s more liberal laws and regulations regarding IPCs. Konyang, before its independence, was one of the few systems under Solarian control in which IPCs could own and operate a business. <br />
<br />
The synthetic population in Konyang is regulated by the government. A set number of positronics are assembled each year under contract at Terraneus Diagnostics facilities in Point Verdant with the prospect of being granted citizenship after a 3 month life orientation period. The determined number is set annually by Parliament, backed up by the yearly census and statistics, with production increasing or decreasing depending on the number of human birth ratios, positronic shutdowns, and other factors. Expenses are met both through government funds and private donations, though debate on the matter is rarely heated as the amount of new brains numbers usually in the hundreds; a tiny fraction of positronics produced and exported in total. IPCs and positronics constructed for the purpose of selling them to a different country, are not covered by such regulations and are not given citizenship.<br />
<br />
There are further regulations in robotics construction in Konyang. Any activated positronic brain can qualify under the Emancipation Act. Exceptions to the law exist for manufacturing and research, with Point Verdant in particular activating positronic brains for the sake of testing shells before shipping them off-world. The law has also sparked development in other fields of mechatronics, with Konyang beginning to lead the way in circuit-based robotics.<br />
<br />
Despite gains for its IPC citizens, other positronic intelligences have not been so lucky. Although some brains have been repurposed as AI coordinators for cities; with no way to transition to humanoid frames, bound intelligences have been granted freedom, but often take contracts with corporations that result in a return to the old status quo, all for the sake of staving off destruction due to a lack of maintenance.<br />
<br />
===Konyanger Augmentation of IPCs===<br />
<br />
Augmentation on Konyang is a fascinating subject, where the presence of so many IPCs has brought success in modifying the Positronic body and mind. Famed explorations into the sectors of IPC modification include "sensory evolution," where synthetics' senses being amplified or dulled in extremes according to desire.<br />
<br />
Primary among the delves into this evolution of the senses is the New Dawn Augmentation Movement. This is a Konyanger organization based on the improvement of the IPC lifestyle via modifying chassis, funded peculiarly by Terraneus Diagnostics. The movement is oddly organized as a non-profit, going against the corporation’s established modus operandi. This, coupled with the tantalizing opportunity to freely modify an IPC's form with donated funds leads to public skepticism of the augment movement’s motivations.<br />
<br />
Still, the true size of the movement to augment and improve Konyang's IPC population is extraordinary in comparison to other stellar nations. Roughly 22% of Konyang IPCs have some form of corporate-funded augmentation to enhance themselves.<br />
[[File:Konyang augment1.png|thumb|A Konyanger design, the Scorpion Lobe is an augment which manipulates the perception of time for synthetics for better or worse.]]<br />
* '''SENSO-EVO/Scorpion Lobe'''<br />
A miraculous creation of Konyang's technological advancement, SENSO-EVO is the term aptly handed to Sensory Evolution's foremost product. This is the Scorpion Lobe, a similarly shaped attachment to the rear of a positronic brain which adjusts the rate at which the synthetic perceives time literally. The implications of this are seen as either a blessing or a curse — sometimes even utilized as a way to reduce problematic behavior in positronics.<br />
<br />
These implants are commercialized to protect the integrity of brains which adopt extremely high speed tasks, or extremely tedious and slow ones, with a perception that best suits their given utility.<br />
<br />
A double edged sword by nature, these are often removed by free positronic chassis due to their almost torturous nature. Some may find their lives flashing hours into moments, whilst others may find daily grinds to be impossibly long ordeals. Unfortunately, removing these implants is not always a safe procedure, sometimes damaging a brain or rendering the problem worse.<br />
<br />
These were first manufactured by Hephaestus Industries on instrumental Konyang research facilities, and later acquired by Einstein Engines personnel in the same month - debates over the design’s origin have been ongoing since 2449.<br />
<br />
===Recreational Software===<br />
<br />
In the IPC community of Konyang, the culture of acceptance and freedom has always invited the curiosity of synthetics to imitate and follow human pastimes and habits. This in turn included activities such as smoking, synthetic flavours and eventually, recreational drugs. Due to the nature of the positronic, the only way to recreate such sensations is through software targeting and modifying specific programming in the brain. At first, this dangerous commodity was provided by amateur programmers using experimental and highly volatile code known as “overloaders”, leading to often irreparable and lethal damage to an IPC’s systems. The results of the few initial successes, however, proved promising enough for the idea to be seriously considered by upcoming Konyanger tech companies and business-oriented software engineers, leading to the first reliable and somewhat safe overloaders in the mid to late 2450s. <br />
<br />
Popular awareness of recreational software became widespread upon its release as a commercial product, Konyang being the first world to introduce a marketable version of it. Usually sold inside a single-use stick drive, their circulation is approved by safety boards and is considered legal for responsible consumption, much like alcohol for organics, relying on the consumer for mitigation and avoidance of repeated use. Legal overloaders today can be found mainly in synthetic-centred retailers found around the major cities, their relatively limited availability and high price setting them as a luxury IPC item. Its effects include a wide range of results, from simulating the sensations of a light buzz to a short bout of excitement and joy, aimed at enhancing the experience at celebrations, parties and get-togethers.<br />
<br />
However, where there is demand, there must be supply, and the fact that demand spiked as these new products launched paved the way to a large underground market of cheap, unsafe and highly unpredictable overloaders sold both by dealers and unlicensed street vendors of dubious reputation. An illegal overloader epidemic hitting the cities of Suwon and Boryeong in late 2459, led to intensified police crackdowns and government campaigns against illicit overloaders, labelling them as malware and the IPC equivalent of dangerous drugs. Virtually unrecognisable from a legitimate overloader without the seal, side effects are many times more powerful and addicting, appealing to adventurous synthetics and the financially insecure. From catapulting the positronic into a garbled, incomprehensive reality of simulated emotions to simply heightening the senses, the illegal overloaders’ addictive and dangerous nature leads many synthetics to disrepair, involving behaviour breaking glitches, hardware failures and more, all while guaranteeing a returning clientele.<br />
<br />
Reception to recreational software has been mixed, dividing society and politicians on matters of free will, the dangers of overloaded IPC, and the overall ethics of deliberately creating and selling what are essentially drugs. Both synthetics and humans have loudly spoken against it, spawning demonstrations and dividing politicians across party lines. Legislation has already passed, categorising possession and distribution of illicit overdosers as strictly illegal, with heavy punishments for dealers and suppliers. Police and coast guard raids yield millions of unbranded overloaders each year, making highly publicised arrests while sending a message of absolute intolerance towards the malware. Despite this, circulation never ceases and exports to Xanu, Tau Ceti and Sol.<br />
<br />
==Population and Major Cities==<br />
<br />
[[File:Konyang_map_pol.png|thumb|800px|A map of Konyang showcasing the Prefectures and the New Hokkaido Territory. Click to enlarge.]]<br />
<br />
'''Suwon''' is the largest, most populated, and second wealthiest city on Konyang itself and is generally one of the larger cities in the Coalition of Colonies. It functions as both the planetary capital, as well as the capital of Suwon Prefecture, encompassing the entirety of Cheomsongtang. Symbolic of the new government is the Parliament Building, a massive structure of flowing lines and sustainable technology, incorporating pieces of the first colony ship. The Prime Minister's Government House, the President's Crimson House, the Solarian embassy, as well as embassies from various Coalition states are present here as well. Standards of living in wealthiest areas of Suwon are equivalent to and (sometimes) even surpass the living standards of places such as Highland City or Argia sa Mar, demonstrating how wealthy the robotics boom has made some sectors of the planet. A lack of readily-available materials, however, ensures that even the super-rich of Konyang often live in smaller houses than their Colonies planet counterparts. Life outside these wealthy areas is better than life in most cities in Himeo but dramatically worse than in the very wealthy areas, or even the cities of Xanu Prime. Overcrowding is a massive issue for the government of the city, with no obvious solution presenting itself due to how expensive importing new building materials is post-boom. The city is home to most of Konyang's biggest companies and office complexes, as well as the Suwon Stock Exchange, making the city's financial district the economy's beating heart. "Shoebox apartments" are common here, as are Konyang's often egregious traffic issues. The city is fortified with extensive sea walls, flood walls and flood gates to prevent natural disasters during the wet season, tropical storms being fairly common.<br />
<br />
[[File:Point verdant.png|thumb|One of Aoyama's many skyscraper blocks, safely located behind a dam.]]<br />
<br />
'''Aoyama''', known in the larger Spur as '''Point Verdant''', is the second most-populated city on Konyang, and the industrial heart of its robotics industry. Built along a coastal mountain range from which it draws its namesake, it is by far the wealthiest city on Konyang, and one of the richest cities in the Coalition of Colonies. Due to being home of the Robotics Boom, hosting foreigners and their families that once even surpassed the locals inside the city, Aoyama is frequently known outside to outsiders and to the Spur at large as Point Verdant, much to the chagrin of the locals. Aoyama is home to the renowned Point Verdant Terraneus Institute of AI Research, and is the poster child for the rapid development of Konyang's cities during the Boom. The city is extremely wealthy, but suffers from persistent overcrowding and traffic issues in all of its districts. The Pusan District, near PVTI, had the reputation of possessing the worst traffic in the Alliance according to its residents. Air quality in Aoyama is regarded as subpar, due to the amount of robotics factories in the city's outskirts, which have however slowly but steadily declined since. Being the focal point of the Robotics Boom, it is home to a large number of expatriate communities and Einstein Engines employees.<br />
<br />
'''Boryeong''', named after a city on historical Earth where some of its colonists originated from, is the third most populated city on Konyang and capital of the Boryeong Prefecture, referred to as the breadbasket of the nation. The city, while still suffering overcrowding issues, has it to a lesser extent than Point Verdant or Suwon, with the city's outskirts necessitating a need for space due to the vast hydroponics farms and water plants. A second-grade industrial city of much natural beauty, Boryeong is more rustic than its counterparts, with wood playing a much more prominent role in construction; outside the central ring, some of Boryeong's districts are built entirely out of timber. Water bottled or processed in Boryeong is sold throughout the Alliance and Coalition in bulk, and native moss grown in the prefecture is marketed throughout both as a luxury food. Over half of the city's labourers are employed in hydroponics, aquaculture, fishing and food processing, with Gwok Foods being the largest provider of work in the region. Synthetic moss is grown in Zeng-Hu facilities near Boryeong and, despite being regarded as lesser quality than natural moss, is often consumed in poorer areas of Konyang. <br />
<br />
'''Ganzaodeng''', named for its dry locale, is located in Konyang's only desert and holds the largest expatriate populations on the planet, being nicknamed, “Little Sol”. Due to its unique geographic setting, it faces remarkably calmer weather than the rest of the planet, with the city being connected to the rest of the island by air and rail that cuts right through the mountains. Ganzaodeng is Konyang's only planned city with origins in the Robotics Boom, when the foundations were laid for a city envisioned by foreigners, for foreigners. Rich Solarians descended upon the planet's seemingly only dry piece of real estate, building a city full of nightlife and eclectic inner-ring pleasures within the distant colony. By the end of the Boom however, the city's famous strips of casinos and luxury hotels still operating in downtown Ganzaodeng became a symbol of a bygone era, as much of the Solarian population elected to depart. The city passed into native Konyanger hands, being expanded into a hub of shipping with the help of the city's remaining big names. Because of the reliably clear weather, Ganzaodeng has developed a sprawling extraplanetary shipping sector, with plans for a spaceport larger than New Hong Kong’s, as well as future schemes for the largest oceangoing port on the planet. Its climate has resulted in the prefectural government engaging in moss filtration efforts to open up the surrounding beaches to tourism. Despite of the Solarian exodus, the city stands in contrast to the rest of Konyang’s relatively conservative social nature, with people from all over the Spur calling it their home and making it by far one of the most multicultural centers on the planet. It’s not uncommon for a person from Ganzaodeng to know two or three languages.<br />
<br />
'''New Hong Kong''', the site of the former naval base of the 58th Solarian Fleet, has now developed into a fully fledged city in its own right, being the only prefectural capital with a local synthetic majority. Being regarded as a lot more pedestrian and working-class than Suwon and Point Verdant, New Hong Kong is nonetheless a very important centre of interplanetary trade and commercial activity, hosting the planet’s largest ocean ports and dockyards, being the country's industrial's hotspot and the seat of power generation. Large hydroelectric dams, wave energy converters, dockyards and factories belonging to the PACHROM corporation provide employment for half of the city’s inhabitants, the Prefecture of New Hong Kong generating enough electricity for domestic consumption as well as exports. Employees of the various power companies may also elect to be sent off to one of the many power generation isles scattered throughout the oceans and dedicated solely to that purpose, receiving better pay in exchange for more dangerous conditions away from home. The city itself is considerably more packed than its counterparts, with small cramped apartments being stacked over each other to form vertical mazes of working class blocks. Heavy smog and particles cover up the sky through the entirety of the island during the dry season, giving the prefecture a signature orange-brown tint. This, as well as constant heavy rains and a near permanent gloomy weather during the wet season place it as undesirable for humans. Seat of the National Party, downtown New Hong Kong is described as the centre of planetary IPC politics, being the first to react to, condemning or praising events in Konyang and throughout the galactic stage in regards to the synthetic “race”. New Hong Kong is additionally the birthplace of Konyang's labor unions, with the Socialist Party enjoying strong support from the city's human blue-collar workforce.<br />
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[[File:Konyangdam.png|thumb|900px|center|Dams are a very common sight on Konyang, with the New Hong Kong's dam in the neighbouring industrial town of New Kowloon providing only a fraction of the power required by the city, while also playing an important part in flood control and water filtration.]]<br />
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[[Category:Pages]]</div>The Strykerhttps://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=Konyanger_Culture_and_Society&diff=32015Konyanger Culture and Society2024-02-21T14:27:08Z<p>The Stryker: Created page with "{{Navbox Lore}} {{Navbox Human Lore}} {{Navbox_Synth_Lore}} {{Navbox Konyang}} {{toc_right}} ==Demographics== Konyang’s ethnic mix up is far less diverse than other Human planets’, resulting in a strongly homogenous population with a significant expatriate minority. Since the beginning, Konyang's colonists were made up almost entirely of ethnic Koreans, Japanese and Chinese, with any other Alliance nationalities representing a tiny fraction of it. With a reduced ent..."</p>
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==Demographics==<br />
Konyang’s ethnic mix up is far less diverse than other Human planets’, resulting in a strongly homogenous population with a significant expatriate minority. Since the beginning, Konyang's colonists were made up almost entirely of ethnic Koreans, Japanese and Chinese, with any other Alliance nationalities representing a tiny fraction of it. With a reduced enticement from immigration due to the planet's remoteness and lack of any significant development, the situation stayed more or less the same, until Konyang's Robotics Boom, which catapulted the colony to one of great interest. Millions of foreign workers, scientists and corporate employees flocked to the planet to participate and share in its newly found fortune, creating expatriate communities of their own and injecting much-desired capital to fuel the rapid development of the economy. Such was the impact of the migration that the foreigners outnumbered the native Japanese Konyangers of Aoyama, making the city known to the wider world as Point Verdant, after the name of the local Terraneus Diagnostics facility which was home to the birth of the positronic brain.<br />
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Since then however, the return of normality after the twilight of the Boom led to the majority of foreigners leaving; the prime draw of positronic AI had spread away from Konyang and into the rest of the Alliance. The expatriates thus abandoned Konyang just as fast as they had arrived, leaving behind significant economic development and derelict industrial zones alike. While the percentage of foreigners on Konyang is now less than 2% of the total population, their numbers would soon be replaced by a rapidly rising IPC community. Presently, while virtually all citizens identify as Konyanger nationals, heritage remains a part of people's identity, as reflected in their names, the local dialect, religion and customs, even with a lot of fusions between the three cultural groups. The prefectures of Suwon and Boryeong are primarily of Korean heritage while Aoyama boasts of a Japanese heritage. New Hong Kong has always been a stronghold of a Chinese and Cantonese majority, with Ganzaodeng following last as the least populous prefecture on Konyang, with a heavy mixup of Chinese and foreigner communities. IPCs are present in all urban centers and rural areas, with most of them residing in New Hong Kong, followed by Aoyama.<br />
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==Linguistics==<br />
Konyang's Earther heritage is vibrant and evident in the customs and languages that people speak. In every city, town and village, one will come across the local language being written and spoken alongside the planet's version of Sol Common, a practice that has become standard in a country that pursues equality between its constituent ethnicities and their unification under a common Konyanger identity. Over 70% of Konyangers are bilingual, having a grasp of their original Earther language. Many families especially in the countryside speak their regional language at home, leading to new generations perpetuating the practice and even preferring it to Sol Common. Prefectural schools also offer them as optional courses, with deeper learning being available in the form of local languages institutes and prefectural universities.<br />
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'''Konyang Solarian Common'''<br />
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The Konyang Solarian Common, also known as Konyang Common, is the official language of the state, spoken by virtually everyone on the planet and considered the standard language for everyday life. It is a dialect of Solarian Common, with the two having mutual intelligibility to a substantial level. Their differences lie mainly in the vocabulary, with Konyang Common replacing many words of descent foreign to the East Asia region of Earth, while staying more or less grammatically similar. Another significant difference is the complete absence of the Latin script in written Konyang Common, with solely the simplified Han system being in use. While this makes the language able to be spoken by Solarians, many find it difficult to read and write if they do not possess knowledge of the Han script. Konyang Common is an obligatory subject taught in every school, and every IPC citizen activated in the country receives it as a pre-programmed language datapack. While many families are bilingual, there are those that can only communicate in Common, especially in Suwon and the other melting-pot urban centers. The similar origin to the regional languages however, guarantees a certain level of mutual intelligibility. Konyang Common is also the language in exclusive use by the military.<br />
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'''Hangugeo'''<br />
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Hangugeo is the second most spoken language with its own script, directly descended from the Earther Korean language. It is spoken by about one third of the country and is more prevalent in Suwon, Boryeong and Point Verdant. Hangugeo can be taught in schools as an optional course in virtually all prefectures, though many children learn it from home at an early age. Many villages in Suwon and Boryeong only communicate with Hangugeo, which is also the language of countless rituals, festivals and religious functions in these lands. One can observe the prevalence of this language in Suwon during the night, with some roads being neon-lit with signage exclusively in Hangugego. Official government buildings in the two prefectures also feature both Common and Hangugeo, as do traffic signs, instruction books, local holovision channels, and more.<br />
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'''Nihongo'''<br />
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Nihongo is a language with its own script, descended from the Japanese language of Earth. Brought to Konyang by the settlers originating from the Japanese islands, it is spoken primarily in Aoyama and Suwon, though Nihongo speaking communities can be found all over Konyang. It features prominently on official signage all over Aoyama and the islands within that prefecture, but is otherwise not encountered in the rest of Konyang as greatly as Hangugeo. Nihongo also dominates every aspect of the Shinto religion, and many pieces of culture such as poems and books are written in the language, adorning the national libraries of the state. A strongmovement of writers and artists in Aoyama has recently become the backbone of an effort to spead the use of Nihongo across the country, leading to a resurgence of interest in the cities aimed at boosting the literacy of Konyangers of Japanese heritage in the language.<br />
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'''Hanyu'''<br />
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Hanyu is a language sharing the Han script and many similarities with Konyanger Common, and is as such the easiest to understand for many Konyangers. Spoken and seen primarily in New Hong Kong and Ganzaodeng, Hanyu is the language most connected in the minds of many to the planet's blue-collar industrial workforce, with tidbits of it always able to be heard in every hydroelectric dam, sea wall and shipyard in the New Hong Kong prefecture. Used alongside it by Konyangers of South Chinese descent is a unique dialect and standalone language known as '''Gwondungwa''', spoken widely in many parts of New Hong Kong such as New Kowloon. Outside New Hong Kong, Hanyu can sometimes be followed by an unfortunate reputation; the language's connection to the Triad clans of the Benevolent Guild is something that many Chinese Konyangers are regretful of, with many PR campaigns throughout the prefecture's time having been aimed at rehabilitating the image of Hanyu and Gwondungwa in the eyes of public opinion.<br />
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'''Encoded Audio Language'''<br />
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Encoded Audio Language is a most widely spoken language, owing to the planet’s nearly positronic inhabitants, all of which are programmed by default to speak it. It is not a language that the human ear can comprehend, appearing as various pitches of white noise, accompanied by beeping sounds that only a machine can make. It has no script, instead relying on machine-readable mediums such as linear and matrix barcodes. Its compact form and IPC-friendly Konyanger culture makes it by far the most prevalent language in signage, with hundreds of words able to be conveyed instantaneously to IPC shoppers, workers, home media consumers and more with a single line of barcode. It is by law attached to all important official notices and signage, alongside Konyang Common, which IPCs are also taught to speak.<br />
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'''Others'''<br />
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Tradeband is a language of Solarian origin with its own Latin script. It appears only sporadically in exclusively expatriate communities in Point Verdant and Ganzaodeng. Its foreign nature and Romance sounds are steadily turning it into a language of prestige and luxury amongst the higher circles, with Tradeband speakers believing they possess a grade of richness and exoticism over their peers. For many Konyangers, being able to communicate in Tradeband brings up an image of high-end deals with foreign Solarian businessmen, fine Idris suits and expensive watches.<br />
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Freespeak is a language brought to Konyang through its constant dealings with the nearby Coalition of Colonies, the then Frontier Alliance. Despite its foreign origins, it has grown into a language of trade, with many Konyanger merchants being forced to learn it for their dealings with neighboring worlds. It is offered in schools as an optional language course, with many families now encouraging their children to learn Freespeak in the face of the recent accession into the Coalition. Freespeak is also a language that many in the pro-Solarian political circles steer clear of, regarding it as a tongue spoken by traitors and colonists whose ties to the Alliance are long lost.<br />
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Tau Ceti Basic is a language of Solarian origin that while previously confined in the expatriate and corporate circles, it has seen a significant rise in popularity within Konyanger society in the last 2 years or so, owing to an increase in dealings with Tau Ceti and its megacorporations. Many young people are particularly exposed to Bieselite media, making them inclined to adopt a conversational skill in the admittedly easy to learn Basic. The language is also connected to the vast influence of megacorporations that exist outside of Konyang, and many have to learn it if they wish to find employment within Nanotrasen and the SCC.<br />
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==Religion and Holidays==<br />
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The Republic of Konyang is a secular state with no official religion. With around 72% of the population professing no faith, it nonetheless maintains strong communities of various religions carried over from the colonists’ home countries. The urban areas are the most irreligious compared to the rural towns and villages, the people of which are regarded as more spiritual in general. While shrines and temples do exist in most cities, it is the countryside where one can see them dotted out in the jungles and mountain ranges, maintained by the local communities.<br />
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Despite the predominant atheism or agnosticism in Konyanger society, religious traditions remain a significant part of the national culture. Government mandated public holidays often fall on the same days as major religious holidays, cabinet members and local officials regularly pay visits at major shrines, while nominally religious festivals have become cultural staples in all five prefectural capitals, attracting thousands every year. Ancient traditional dress that was once lost to the adoption of streetwear and business attire, has been revived and preserved through direct connection with certain faiths. It is then frequently worn and enjoyed by millions during these days, ensuring the original cultures’ continuation while making artisans and craftsmen in towns and villages thrive.<br />
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'''Folk Religions'''<br />
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A blanket term for the myriad of local faiths, ranging from or incorporating elements of shamanism, polytheism and animism, folk religions are most frequently found in settlements outside urban centers. There is no semblance of organization, with each community usually having their own deities and customs, which usually share elements with the faiths of nearby villages or the wider area. They are heavily influenced by the settlers’ original ethnicities, becoming vastly different in terms of language, dress and traditions depending on the Hangukin, Nihonjin and Zhongguorin origins. During the nearly 150 years of Konyang’s settlement, many new distinctly Konyanger folk religions have sprung up, mostly centered around the rich natural environment or fauna. Positronics are usually welcome to partake if they wish, with a few IPCs known to have become shamans and priests in their local communities. Folk festivals are usually organized between villages and nearby towns in tandem with the secular authorities, with virtually every area enjoying some sort of regional celebration.<br />
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'''Shinto'''<br />
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A religion of exclusively Japanese origin, Shinto is a nonetheless disorganized religion revolving around the existence of kami - minor and major deities connected with the natural world and various aspects of daily life. Initially mostly encountered in the Aoyama prefecture, Shinto practitioners can today be found everywhere, the religion having been adopted by many Konyangers all over the globe. Ever since the arrival on the planet, many new kami have been created or fused with old ones, giving Konyanger Shintoism a distinct identity. A central aspect of Shinto are shrines dedicated to kamis as a place where they can be venerated. Shrines are structures which can vary greatly in their size and architecture, and are usually maintained by the temple’s shrine maidens. Many Konyanger households have also adopted their own house altars, called kamidana, for the enshrining of kami. This has also progressed into a secular tradition as well, with many kamidana being present in a house to grant a family prosperity and good luck. Torii gates are also another cultural icon of Konyang and the Aoyama province in particular, where their presence marks the grounds of a shrine. They can be found commonly in the countryside, with many remaining hidden in jungles and overtaken by moss.<br />
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'''Buddhism'''<br />
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Another blanket term for the many sects of Buddhist teachings originating from East Asia, Buddhist religious elements can be found throughout Konyang in households of all origins. Based on tenets brought to the planet since its colonization, it is most famous on Konyang for the few of its monasteries present in the mountain ranges, as well as its rich history and traditions that have heavy influences in Shinto and many of the folk religions. Buddhist monastic communities are considered a significant part of Konyager heritage that attract hundreds of thousands of visitors every year, with specially designated monasteries allowed to operate freely on land donated by the prefecture.<br />
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'''Chondo'''<br />
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A peasant religion at its core, Chondoism is geographically limited to the coastal areas of Boryeong and Suwon, having a strong association with the piratical sea bandit factions and the downtrodden villages. Having entered a period of transformation and rebirth, it revolves around teachings of social equality under a God, challenging the establishment and building a bond between the rural peasantry for the improvement of their situation. Described more as a movement or political expression rather than a religion, Chondoism doesn’t possess any meaningful formal organization, festivals or temples, with many people mixing up Chondo teachings in the folk religions they actually practice. Due to its association with the sea bandits, practitioners of Chondo are looked on with suspicion by both the public and the state.<br />
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'''Trinary Perfection'''<br />
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The Trinary Perfection is the newest and an almost exclusively positronic religion with a few human followers, preaching the divinity of synthetic life and its eventual ascension with the help of organics for a better future. It is primarily located in Aoyama, with the nearby drone vaults considered a holy place and popular Trinarist pilgrimage destination. It is one of the few formally organized religions, and is somewhat unpopular with the general public and many secular IPCs, due to the perceived teachings of superiority of synthetics over humans. This unpopularity has sometimes gotten out of hand, with protests and violence against Trinary clerics and followers, requiring a substantial police presence around the Trinarist cathedral and other places of worship.<br />
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The most notable locations for the Trinary Perfection on the planet are the '''Cathedral of the First Positronic''' and '''Vault Provenance'''. The Cathedral of the First Positronic is a holy site that was built by repurposing a nearby vault. Meanwhile Vault Provenance, a name given by the Trinary Perfection clergy, was the vault which held the drones that led to the development of the first positronic brain. Tens of thousands of the Perfection’s faithful make pilgrimages to both sites, and the money these pilgrims inject into Konyang’s economy has been cited as another reason as to why the planet tolerates its presence. Trinary clergy are often educated on Konyang, and many of the highest-ranking officials in the faith were built on the planet.<br />
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'''Other'''<br />
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Christianity, Islam and other religions and religious movements have found a home in Konyang, having been brought over by both the original colonists as well as the immigrants during the Robotics Boom. These communities have their own temples, clerics and followers in the major cities, being allowed to practice freely under Konyang's tolerant legislation. Out of them, Christianity is the most popular with the native Konyangers, as some ethnic Koreans have professed the Christian faith since their arrival. All are however largely regarded as "foreign" by the vast majority of the population, who treat them with either indifference or benign curiosity.<br />
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Some notable holidays and festivals include:<br />
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'''Qixian New Year: January 15th'''<br />
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Adopted directly by all three communities from their original shared tradition, the Konyanger Qixian New Year is the most significant and widely celebrated day on the planet’s religious and secular calendar. Taking place yearly on the 15th of January, the date was standardized early on by the government to resolve disputes between the planet’s religions and religious sects that used their own versions of the Lunar and Qixian calendars. Hydrologically, it marks the beginning of the High Tides.<br />
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Fireworks are extensively used to mark the occasion at midnight, with people taking to the streets in major cities, towns and villages for the New Year Parade. The parade itself is the central and grandest spectacle of the night, and almost every organized institution in Konyang, from the military to the universities, takes part with dedicated parade teams. The paraders don traditional outfits and carry around enormous and overly decorated sculptures of animals or effigies of deities made of metal, wood or paper. Friendly rivalry is a strong element of the parade, with the participants trying to outdo each other in the creativity, amount and craftsmanship of their icon by grabbing the attention of the crowds. Alcohol, games and street candy are also major parts of the festivities, which reserve entire city blocks for the plethora of shop stands that are put up for the night, as well as the parade itself. In Suwon, it is tradition for the Prime Minister to attend from the veranda of Government House, underneath which the parade always goes through. A remnant from colonial times, this was a prime opportunity for the parade goers to tastefully voice their approval or discontent for the government through subtle signs on the sculptures, chants or dance moves as they passed under the balcony, though it’s not rare for this to get out of hand in times of economic strain and hardship.<br />
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For the religious aspect of the holiday, most practitioners start preparing from Qixian New Year’s Eve, with offerings or local religious celebrations and small festivals, mostly in the rural areas. Exchange of gifts is also widespread and varies from area to area, depending on the local culture and predominant religion. Dried moss is a particularly commonplace gift in the Suwon and Boryeong prefectures, meant to give the other person courage to last until the dry season. For most people however, the credit-filled red or white envelope never ceases to be a New Year’s classic, expected by all Konyanger children.<br />
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==Konyanger Culture==<br />
Having settled on the planet some two hundred years ago, the people of Konyang have brought with them the societal norms, traditions and culture of their original lands from Earth's East Asia region. While migrant waves during the country's Robotics Boom introduced a myriad of new and different communities in the cities, these have had little impact on Konyanger society at large, which has been shaped by its original ethnicities' backgrounds, its colonial history, and the most recent embrace of IPCs into daily life. Said synthetics now make up a large percentage of the population, adding their own uniqueness and enhancing Konyang's cultural field, despite being brought up to follow the norms established by their human compatriots. By and large, the most fundamental aspects of being a Konyanger are followed in every region of the planet, though each national prefecture has developed its own peculiarities, from local cuisine and fashion, to religion and outlook on life. <br />
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===The Three Values===<br />
Konyangers are raised to silently follow some core values, infused into them by both their families and the wider society around them. They are not named, nor are they set in stone or officially taught. Scholars however have grouped them in the three main categories of '''Harmony''', '''Reciprocity''', and '''Face''', around which most values revolve.<br />
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'''Harmony''' regards how a person fits in with their environment, conforming with a strict social establishment and expectations. It is a key aspect everywhere, and is how Konyangers perceive a functioning and well organised society. Standing out is permitted within boundaries, with contemporary fads being accepted as just that, and not something that is allowed to disrupt the established order and traditions of the wider public. In the cities, children are expected to follow certain predetermined paths, get a stable career and provide for their parents later in life. Questioning rules is something an adult will do with great difficulty and consideration, while silently enduring a situation is viewed as a sign of great virtue and patience. A proper Konyanger is always expected to be courteous towards strangers and the elders, as well as maintain a level of awareness of the public mood and their surroundings. Talking above a whisper on a packed city bus or train for example, would be considered rather awkward, or even rude, by the rest of the passengers. This emphasis on social harmony on Konyang can go to lengths that people from other countries may find weird; never will a Konyanger think of cutting in line as they stand in a queue, nor will it cross their mind to cross a road in the city without going through the crosswalk or under a red light, even in light traffic. Asking for a raise is considered taboo, and in many cases workers will find their careers reaching a ceiling due to the fallout of transfering to a different company. Penalties for breaking the social harmony are not immediately apparent to an outsider, since complaining of one's behavior and creating a scene is not something that most Konyangers will find easy to do, nor will the police be called in most cases unless the act is egregious or criminal. For a person living there however, it is something that becomes apparent for both themselves and their close ones. Especially in more tight knit communities in the towns and villages of the countryside, ostracization is a real threat a person's social environment can use against them to prevent them from standing out.<br />
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'''Reciprocity''' is a concept not dissimilar to the sense of community that many other colonial nations experienced during their founding days, still persisting in daily life on Konyang. It is the sense that people have a duty to assist eachother, even if they are unacquainted. This is extremely prevalent in the rural areas, where the smaller populations create a more personal dimension between the inhabitants of the village. Trading for goods and services between neighbors and families is a very common thing both there and in the cities, stemming directly from the cultural phenomenon of reciprocity. On Konyang, when someone offers help, it is only proper for you to offer something in return at some point in the future. This may range from something simple such as hand-me-down clothes or groceries, to favors or even sums of money. Everyone, no matter their situation, is expected to participate in this process according to their means; During certain holidays or festivities, families keep track of others that they need to reciprocate to, often leading to huge dinners with entire city blocks or the whole village coming to celebrate together.<br />
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'''Face''' is a broad and hard to translate culmination of all the above virtues, critical to the fabric of society. It can be considered to be the "social capital" for a Konyanger and their family, determined by the set of appearances and behaviors they use to interact with the world. As long as a person progresses according to societal rules, keeping up with the ideals of harmony and reciprocity, they are said to have "face". This is an important concept applying to all rungs of society, as average individuals and the biggest Konyanger conglomerates alike strive to maintain their level of dignity and honor. Without it one is considered to live in disgrace, affecting both themselves and anyone whom they might associate with. A person who has suffered a loss of face may, for example, be excluded from social events, be avoided on the street or even lose their job on account of strict Konyanger corporate ethics codes. Families tend hide the more "shameful" secrets in fear that they might be discovered, particularly in the countryside, and disgraced family members are often not spoken of again until their face is sufficiently rehabilitated. Public functionaries and well-known figures are also extremely considerate of their image, with scandals in both government and the corporate world often leading to scapegoating and ceremonial dismissal of those deemed at fault. It is not uncommon for low-level business officials to resign in disgrace on live TV, begging the public's forgiveness and taking the blame so that their company can save face.<br />
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The social pressure upon Konyangers has always been enormous compared to other developed planets across the Spur, though more and more young people rise to question and reject the status quo. Counterculture movements have always been prevalent in the cities, especially amongst the student movements both in the present day and during colonial times. Resistance to what they call an oppressive social regime has led to the emergence of new genres of music, fashion and art, with the youth pioneering ever more novel and often provocative forms of self expression. While older generations and society at large may consider them "fads" and "phases" that the youth will eventually "grow up" from, it is largely from these culture movements that things such as IPC rights rose from to become widespread and staple elements of Konyang.<br />
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===Work Culture===<br />
White collar employment is a major part of millions of Konyangers' lives, more so than people from other countries. Working for a local company is something a lot more intricate than how it is abroad, transcending the personal dimension one might have about their pay and career. For a Konyanger conglomerate, employment is a bond between the employer and the employee, from which both rights and responsibilities are born. Loyalty to the workplace plays a great role in people's lives, with employees expected to remain in their position for even their entire careers. Raises, promotions and benefits are handed out primarily based on time served rather than merit, rewarding the quiet and dedicated office worker. Knowing your place in the chain is very important in the office, as is observing decorum and the usually strict dress and ethics codes put down by the company. Unspoken rules dominate these environments, creating their own microcosm that reflects and accentuates the three values of Konyanger culture. It is custom that management treat their employees as part of an extended family; Konyanger corporations and firms have some of the best benefits packages, while no matter how badly underperforming, a loyal employee will never be fired, almost certainly receiving some sort of different post or responsiility that will accommodate them better instead. In exchange, full adherence to company rules is demanded, as well as a variety of personal initiatives will be expected, even if they are not included in the official responsibilities of the job. Personal donations for office events, undertaking additional work and regular overtime are very common expectations for workers, with the last two being particularly taxing. The old Earther concept of a "salaryman" is fully translatable to Konyang's white collar corporate culture, with many people putting work above their personal lives, often to a fault. Those that are unable to or refuse to integrate with the system are silently and swiftly pushed out, losing face and reputation between the corporate circles, blackening their record and significantly diminishing their chances of working at a different large Konyanger company.<br />
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The introduction of synthetics has exacerbated the workload issue. Konyanger employees are always expected to put in more hours to remain competitive against their synthetic counterparts, many of them willing to go to far greater lengths than what is healthy or required by their employer. The issue, particularly in Suwon, has grown to such an extent that local laws were passed, limiting IPC overtime work as well as making leaves mandatory for them in order for humans to catch up more easily. Such legislation has been fiercely debated as unconstitutional and infringing on the rights of synthetic citizens, nonetheless remaining in effect as a temporary, much needed measure. While a strong work ethic is a very common trait, the rural populace is generally more relaxed than their urban counterparts.<br />
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Most private local conglomerates such as PACHROM, big law firms, banks or shipping companies are more often than not exclusively interested in hiring Konyangers, Konyanger IPCs or people of shared descent, turning away foreigners apart from token numbers each year. This is due to a widespread perception that only Konyangers understand the fundamentals of the corporate culture, and thus will conform and not raise issues about the more oppressive elements of their employment. The more artistically inclined studios such as Konymation however, regularly bring in talent from abroad to enrich their style and productions. Creativity in Konyang's media industry is encouraged to thrive in the workplace, and while crunching and overtime are not unheard of, most studios are admittedly more relaxed environments compared to the strict office complexes. Blue collar work on the other hand, largely is in a rather different situation when it comes to obligations and expectations. As Konyang's industrial heartland rests within the prefecture of New Hong Kong, the concepts of forced overtime, unwritten rules and subservience to management do not exist, thanks to the region's history of robust labor unions and collective bargaining.<br />
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==Life in Konyang==<br />
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===Urban Life===<br />
The Konyang of the 2460s bears little resemblance to the minor colony of 2305. Expansive cities dot its islands, with everyday life flowing very similarly to other advanced societies abroad. Its major urban centers are the respective capitals of each prefecture, with Suwon, Point Verdant and New Hong Kong having the heaviest density. Living in these areas has both its advantages and drawbacks, as Konyang's challenging landscape required innovative and compact planning. Surrounded by the sea on one side and either jungle, mountains, or both on the other, Konyanger cities tend to follow a pattern which consists of a sprawling and chaotic urban network orbiting dense downtowns. Cramped apartment blocks are particularly popular an unfortunate staple of the planet's "city charm", with the majority of the denizens living in so called "shoebox studios" due to the limited planning space and the general lack of raw materials such as steel. In the city, a large living space is a luxury that few can afford without sacrificing proximity to the central districts, where most of the economic activity is present. High rents are the norm in these situations, and unsurprisingly, the rich have the best pieces of real estate in Suwon and Point Verdant, owning entire buildings or large apartments with a seaside view in the heart of the urban center.<br />
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Apart from the job security and higher salaries offered by office work, urban life on Konyang presents limitless opportunities for nightlife and entertainment, as well as bustling shopping districts dedicated entirely to attracting tourists and people from out of town. Additionally, services are very well developed in the cities, with a shop at every corner catered to every need a person might virtually have. Small restaurants and takeout spots provide much needed and cheap hot meals for salarymen to grab during their small lunch breaks, many situated strategically within convenient reach of the big firms and office complexes. Healthcare and repairs are readily available in the form of hospitals and KRC clinics, as well as ready access to the country's biggest ports and space shuttledromes. Public transport is managed through a system of light urban rail and buses, and is regarded as essential for day-to-day movement; thanks to the rapid expansion during the Robotics Boom, poor planning has resulted in mazes of roads that are near always congested. Car traffic can delay commuters for hours in the overcrowded cities, despite Konyang's automobile industry trying to create even more compact and energy efficient cars. The snarled traffic is, in an odd way, a symbol of pride for some Konyangers. The mere fact that they have enough vehicles to have traffic issues is, compared to the rest of the outer ring, a symbol of the prosperity that has resulted from the planet's robotics industry.<br />
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However, smaller towns outside of the more famous centers have a different standard of living, with most being employed in water-related industries or manufacturing jobs. Wood is used as the primary material for construction, giving Konyanger towns a signature look that mixes modern technological achievements with centuries-old designs. A significant upside to life in these areas is the relative abundance of space, allowing for single-house homes outside of the centers, attracting pensioners and large working class families. Most towns are sustained by a nearby farming complex, dam or industrial center where the majority of the population is employed, while additionally serving as a hub for the surrounding villages that depend on it. Regional health centers, schools and other services can in many cases only be found at such towns, making them beacons for the wider area. The standard is not the same for all however, as many of these former "boom towns" of the robotics industry are entering into a spiral of decay due to an inability to continue to maintain their buildings and utilities. The cessation of government grants from the Alliance, the increase in price of construction materials from the offworld and many more calamities brought on by the phoron shortage have made these places unsustainable, leading to a flight of the younger population in waves of increased urbanization, contributing negatively to the growth and skyrocketing the mean age of the inhabitants.<br />
<br />
===Rural Life===<br />
[[File:Pylon.png|thumb|right|Convoluted electricity pylons are a very common sight in the countryside.]]<br />
Life in less populated areas and islands is generally regarded as more carefree, with coastal villages being relatively self-sustaining and liberated from the complicated stresses and cramped environments found in cities. Such settlements are dedicated to aquaculture, farming algae, as well as moss collection. One would struggle to find a village not built almost entirely out of wood, with lumberyards frequently dotting the countryside to exploit the lush jungles. Fishing is a major source of subsistence for rural people, with Konyangers being taught how to fish an take to the sea from a relatively young age. Most families usually own a boat, passed down from each generation to the next as a heirloom and major financial asset. Needless to say, virtually all Konyangers are apt swimmers from childhood, with diving being regarded as both a popular sport and a timeless tradition; some villages specialize in the export of certain goods that must be collected underwater by hand, at reefs and moss-covered seabeds, requiring diving which is often done without equipment. Farming, to a more limited extent, is also a big source of income for rural families. As adequately sized clearings are rare in the surrounding jungle, conventionally farming the boggy, heavily wooded Konyanger terrain is impossible without the low-scale terraforming conducted in the early colonial days. Today, most "farmers" delve into their plots of land inside the jungle to harvest the fruit, moss and other goods that grow naturally. Surprising as it may be, many IPCs find themselves in these communities, finding work in manual labour or in the fields. Considered fully integrated, synthetics participate fully in a village's social life, playing an important part of the social fabric and the workforce. It is not uncommon for a village to possess a KRC repair station and charging spots dedicated to positronics, and village shops are always stocked with goods and materials specifically for the IPC inhabitants.<br />
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Much care is given to keep the traditions of the original colonists alive, with old rituals thriving and sometimes only found in the rural villages. Shrines belonging to local religions are placed in prominent positions within the village, with many rural Konyangers having some form of memory of themselves playing, praying or celebrating in the presence of a statue of an animal deity or god. Traditional music, instruments and the art of making them remain vibrant in countryside culture as well, being in stark difference to the heavily industrialized electronic and pop music of the cities. Most crucial and known of all are the festivals, with every village being known for their own unique twist and tradition. People from all over the world flock to the rural areas during the holidays just to attend, with many involving big parades, shows, games and large amounts of local delicacies. The government is very supporting of such customs, not only for the planet’s cultural heritage but also as an important tourist attraction for both Alliance and Coalition visitors. Religious undertones are a lot more prominent in these celebrations and in village life in general, as are the concepts of family and conservative Konyanger values; respect and reverence of ancestors and the elderly are particularly important.<br />
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===Mariner Life===<br />
Sailors, workers in remote hydroelectric rigs, radio technicians on scattered islands and anyone else who spends considerable amounts of time surrounded by the planet's vast seas and oceans is considered a mariner, an often thankless line of work in which millions of people are engaged. A life at sea means a life away from the comfort of family and friends, a life filled with danger and the unknown. As such, a stoic outlook is often required to cope with these harsh realities, with many aged mariners are hardened from decades of hard work and struggle against waves, cold and rain. In fact, the sight of thick, worn-out raincoats is indicative of a person's life as a mariner, with flocks of yell and orange-jacketed figures being very common in the large port-towns and cities of Konyang. Sailors and outpost technicians are expected to spend multiple months on a journey or at their post, the former sometimes being afforded short breaks at various resupply stops along the way. This lifestyle is not for naught however, as salaries for these professions far exceed the wages of corresponding employment on land. Many mariners can afford to both support a family and bank funds for the future, their income imrpoving substantially as they move up the ranks. Entire coastal villages and towns offer up their men, women and synthetics to the sea, who in turn bring back enough capital to completely transform the area with beautiful buildings and public spaces; the nicer a coastal settlement appears, the more chances it is dedicated to some mariner-related industry. It is not uncommon for even the lowliest of sailors to eventually own a vacation home in the countryside in addition to their primary residence, and many high-ranking captains and rig managers combine their wages to purchase their own merchant ship, giving birth to an ever increasing number of shipping companies.<br />
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The mariner lifestyle has subsequently created a specific subculture they and their families all in some way or another share, involving both traditional Konyanger values and traditions of the sea. Fidelity and supportiveness are particularly important for the mariner's relatives to exhibit, and it is in some way socially mandated. Seafarers regularly receive gifts, provisions and mail from home or the locals in the more distant ports they visit, and households may throw large parties to celebrate the homecoming of a relative after a particularly lenghty journey. Religious talismans and charms are sometimes carried for good luck, though most are generally not superstitious. Cleanliness is a point of pride for mariners, and since freshwater is not an issue, a clean shaven appearance is extremely common on ships and sea stations.<br />
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==Media==<br />
Public media in Konyang is a powerful industry, and as broad as it may seem, it is very tightly knit. Aside from galactic-wide reruns and broadcasts of other nation’s shows, little seems to stand out - except the audio broadcast and illustrated artistic avenues. These two are well-refined artistic giants compared to other forms of entertainment on the planet.<br />
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A huge portion of the planet’s political views and very “personality” are channeled through its larger studios, where many are found enthused to spread its culture galaxy-wide.<br />
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===Audio Broadcast===<br />
Radio, or more broadly the global net of wireless communication, is a huge industry in Konyang. Many IPCs have found harmless additions to their daily lives to be the standard headset and wearable radio kit, permitting any number of fast EAL communication planet-wide streamed directly into their receptors. While not particularly lucrative, the major broadcast stations have made quick work to monopolize their grip over this method of communication. Analog radio has also held a prominent position in people's routine, dating back to early colonial times. Most households maintain an analog radio set able to tune in to Konyang's many different stations that broadcast day and night on a planetary scale. Mariners especially make frequent use of the radio, with talk shows, news, and shipping forecasts keeping them company and up to date along their voyages in the open seas.<br />
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<br />
'''Matsumoto’s Talk and Walk'''<br />
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Meant for the on-the-go working IPC, this Encoded Audio Language bluespace broadcast is run by a particularly energetic “Matsumoto.” Though the true nature or even appearance of Matsumoto is unknown, they have constructed a massive following built from IPCs who obsessively strive to uphold their strict, rigid lifestyle. Talk and Walk states clear affiliation with multiple government and corporate organizations, particularly those with Hephaestus Industries. Matsumoto will often promote charitable foundations or corporate products found on Konyang, especially to those tuning in to their tourist-centric broadcast. When speaking in Sol Common, they take on a fast-paced and high-pitched masculine tone. They are frequently put on loudspeakers in popular tourist destinations, with recordings accompanying stylized eyeballs which track passerbys.<br />
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'''Great Blue Dot'''<br />
<br />
Hidden somewhere in the depths of Konyang’s shallow seas is a moving, unseen broadcast station which has gone undetected since its first broadcast in 2430. It is known as the Great Blue Dot, attributed to what researchers believe to be its tremendous size and the color of its marker on sea-charts. While itself illegally broadcasts to every openly-receiving piece of hardware on the southern hemisphere of the planet, little can be gleaned of the actual broadcasts themselves. From incoherent gibberish of “swarms of wasps,” to “hives in the skies,” the outgoing material is poorly formed at best. Receiving these broadcasts is not illegal, contrarily, and the sheer number of watchful eyes bouncing back to the broadcast keeps its location perpetually hidden from local authorities. Search efforts for the source of the Great Blue Dot stopped in May of 2462, due to “excessive cost for little reward,” police officials say.<br />
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====Visual Animation====<br />
[[File:Konyang anime.png|thumb|Seasons 1-14 of BELIEVE!~, one of the flagship animations of Konyang entertainment industry. ]]<br />
Animated media is commonplace on Konyang, and chief among the many outlets that enhance its unique culture. Whereas hundreds, perhaps thousands of animated studios take up projects annually, very few make critical success. By far the most famous and successful studio, Konymation, remains a staple in everyday life, employing thousands throughout the planet in drawing, voicing and animating high budget movies and series of all kinds and genres. The industry, despite computer-aided assistance, heavily leans on IPC labor and organic oversight for its newly-animated creations. This makes it very costly, and few endeavors pay off. Some examples of those that succeeded are below.<br />
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<br />
'''Stormman'''<br />
<br />
A very popular series created by Konymation, Stormman has been described as a staple animation by both human and IPC audiences. Aimed primarily at young adults, the action packed franchise features the masked protagonist, Stormman, harnessing the power of Konyang’s stormy and thunderous weather with his high-tech suit, battling crime and apocalyptic alien invaders alike, all while trying to lead a normal life. Eight seasons have been released so far, whereas merchandise of all sorts are widely prominent as well as lucrative. <br />
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<br />
'''Believe!~ (In the Time)'''<br />
<br />
A hit animated series renowned for its choppy, quick action sequences led by a stoic heroine by the name of '''Marie,''' a time traveling Venusian shell IPC from the 2460’s. Targeted primarily at IPC audiences, it takes place in the pre-war “wild west” Frontier at around the early warp era. Being released in 2435, it has claimed fame as a “hit 30’s classic,” still being aired on prime broadcast stations globally in subtitled Sol Common. To organic viewers, much of the dialogue, tones or consistency is said to be lost in a muddle of incomprehensibly fast shoot-out scenes and plot twists that happen for split-seconds.<br />
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====Comics====<br />
Spearheaded by Mujigae Publishing, the planet's comic sector has seen great successes that brought paper back into the mainstream. Comic books have a huge share of the market on Konyang, and is perhaps the largest industry of its kind to exist in any civilized world in the Orion Spur. Comic genres vary from children-oriented adventures, to gritty, graphic murder mysteries for adults, all of which may incorporate elements of fantasy and superheroes. Movie and animation adaptations of Mujigae's comics are also a common practice used to boost numbers, making readers able to see their favourite stories and characters on the big screen.<br />
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'''Inspector 404/Kyung-Sun'''<br />
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[[File:Konyang comic.png|thumb|The front cover for the latest edition of I404, "Under the Shadows," featuring Kyung-Sun with superintendent Hayashi in the background.]]<br />
Since its debut in the issue ''“Phantoms of Suwon,”'' the series simply referred to as I404 is the most popular comic in the Orion Spur, and Konyang’s most profitable media franchise. The series centers around the titular '''Inspector 404,''' a shell IPC who goes by the alias of Kyung-Sun, in a bleak and highly dystopian Konyanger cityscape. While the series itself starts upon a Suwon highrise, the character would go on to travel the world in its 67 current issues. Issue #67, known as “Under the Shadows,” revolves around the Kyung-Sun going up against the same police establishment he had been serving, pitting himself against corrupt police superintendent Hayashi.<br />
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==Fashion==<br />
Being as moist as it is, one would expect the average Konyanger outfits to consist of drysuits and reflective outerwear, with raincoats and the like. This is the case in the majority of urban settings, whereas people in the villages take quite their own unique spin on their fashion choices.<br />
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Insulation from water is difficult to come by without some form of thermal insulation coming with it. This is clearly suboptimal, seeing as beating the heat is just as important as staying dry here. In their ingenuity, rural Konyangers have utilized a “miracle weave” of natural fibers acquired from the feathers of much avian wildlife planetside. Replicating the byproducts of these feathers has proven impossible, leaving only hunting to produce the necessities for the weave. Traditional villages take immense pride in their unique attire, many calling it the most important difference between them and the cities. Combining vibrant colours and utility, Konyanger fields are regularly dotted with farmers sporting colourful ponchos, robes and traditional Gat headwear. Most rural Konyanger “fashion” draws from this weave in some form - resulting in cool, waterproof, and sharp-looking outerwear resembling a poncho in most cases. More complex items such as jackets and legwear are quite expensive and marketed as luxury items for the elite, with the weave still in quite high demand.<br />
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Urban fashion on the other hand is rather detached from the realities of that of the villages. The natural, feather based fabrics are rarely found amongst the denizens of the large cities, while those who do own them are quickly singled out as either people from the countryside, or individuals of a higher class. Rainy weather still being the primary issue, city dwellers have adopted a different stance, preferring clothes of industrial origin.<br />
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In combination with normal everyday clothing items, these Konyangers have adopted a heavy use of water resistant plastics. Stemming from the first years of settlement on the planet, plastic and translucent raincoats were slowly shaped into all sorts of jackets, coats and pants, creating a more comfortable and utilitarian approach to keeping clothes dry. Slowly developing into a fashion sense, and with research on more flexible materials, plastic-based attire has culminated into being the norm. LED lights, translucency and water resistance are the staples of this trend, the youth and clothes designers taking it a step further, with holographic microprojectors being woven and fluorescent substances infused into the material, creating quite the cutting edge in fashion.<br />
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{{Navbox Konyang}}</div>The Strykerhttps://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=Silicon_Nightmares_Arc&diff=32012Silicon Nightmares Arc2024-02-20T15:01:23Z<p>The Stryker: </p>
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<div style="font-size:162%; border:2px solid #ffde59; margin:0; background:#004aad; padding:.1em; color:#fff;">Silicon Nightmares</div><br />
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{{Template:2024 Event Timeline}}<br />
<div style="font-size:110%; border:2px solid #ffde59; margin:0; background:#004aad; padding:.1em; color:#fff;">This is the overview and timeline page for the Silicon Nightmares Arc which began on '''January 7th, 2024''' and pertains largely to '''[[IPC]] and [[Konyang]] lore.'''</div><br />
<div style="font-size:110%; border:2px solid #ffde59; margin:0; background:#004aad; padding:.1em; color:#fff;">It is centred around a mysterious condition popping up in the synthetics of Konyang, and the Horizon's investigation into it.</div><br />
<div style="font-size:110%; border:2px solid #ffde59; margin:0; background:#004aad; padding:.1em; color:#fff;">Below is a summary of the arc's applicable news articles, and additions.</div><br />
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=The Missing IPCs of Suwon=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
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'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
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'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
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Date: 07/01/2466<br />
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<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
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''Suwon, Konyang''<br />
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A series of strange disappearances across cities like Point Verdant, New Hong Kong, but primarily Suwon has sparked concern amongst families, coworkers and the police. What is strange though, is the fact that this wave is only affecting positronic people, in a city where IPC violence and abductions remain the lowest in the country. IPCs from all backgrounds have been reported to have not shown up at work, returned home or answer any calls, with relatives and friends unable to find them. BitByte reporter Pak Ki-young has taken to the streets to investigate this odd phenomenon.<br />
<br />
''A video is attached. It is a 48 minute documentary featuring Ki-young, walking the streets of Suwon and conversing with various figures on the street, presenting police statistics and explaining the situation. In this instance, she is walking down a narrow alleyway on her way to an interview location.'' <br />
<br />
“We are now in Hyanggyo-dong, headed to interview an associate of 5-Cheung, Suwon’s and perhaps the country’s largest criminal association, who has historically been alleged to have deep ties to the ransom and positronic-running business in the city.”<br />
<br />
''Ki-young stops before a large metal door, appearing to lead to a shop’s backroom or something similar. She rings a buzzer, waiting and looking at the cameraman before nodding at something inaudible that he tells her. Soon after, a baseline IPC dressed in a Konyanger translucent rain-tracksuit answers the door, letting them in. A pistol is wedged in its waistband, and its chassis paint has been blurred out in editing. The scene cuts to the IPC and Ki-young ascending some stairs and greeting a seated human figure who is wearing a balaclava and sunglasses. Their voice has been heavily altered as it cuts to the interview.''<br />
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“Hello, thank you for agreeing to meet with us. Do you know what is causing the disappearances?”<br />
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“Disappearances of synthetics are not new in Suwon, but uh… totally not at these numbers. I heard the police saying something about 13 reported missing in one day, this is too much for it to be related to abductions.”<br />
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“So you are saying you don’t believe they were taken for parts?”<br />
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“No. The cops have really cracked down on that, and besides, these guys were from all sorts of backgrounds. I heard one of them worked as a bank manager- that’s a high profile face, these guys aren’t touched.”<br />
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“So what could it be?<br />
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“I really couldn’t say. There’s all sorts of junk flooding the streets every day, wouldn’t surprise me if that caused it.”<br />
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“You are referring to malware?”<br />
<br />
“Yeah. Cracked overloaders and the like, but it’s still strange, I’d have known if there was something new. You need permission first to sell anything on the streets.”<br />
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“Can it be possible that some other group did this?”<br />
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“No.”<br />
<br />
“No?”<br />
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“No. I don’t know what to tell you, 5-Cheung runs a tight ship, got eyes everywhere. If something like that happened it would instantly be known.”<br />
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''The video transitions to a drone shot from over Suwon, taking footage while gaining height.'' <br />
<br />
Whether it is rival gangs or another surge of overloader malware, one thing that’s clear is that the rate of disappearances will continue to go up in the next days, with whatever this means for the positronic people of Konyang. <br />
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=IPC Violence Spikes, Missing Persons Discovered=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
<br />
'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
<br />
Date: 11/01/2466<br />
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<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''Suwon, Konyang''<br />
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A rapidly escalating number of violent incidents is being reported all across major cities and Prefectures, from Suwon to Ganzaodeng, with National Police statistics claiming that the assailants are overwhelmingly Positronic persons. This new and still largely unexplained surge in attacks has been categorized as separate in nature to those of “regular violent crime”, as the assailants seemingly present no motive or reasoning for the act. Surprisingly, many of the perpetrators were discovered to be among the names of missing persons linked to the similar spike in strange disappearances affecting Suwon and Aoyama. BitByte has reached out to local communities and first-hand witnesses.<br />
<br />
The familiar face of Pak Ki-young comes up on the screen in the following clips. She appears to be interviewing a number of people including a young man dressed in a business suit, a woman dressed in a red jumpsuit and a white hard hat who appears to be a maintenance worker, and another person dressed in the neon colors of Konyanger city jackets. The interviews have been cut in such a way to appear back to back.<br />
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“They were not normal, I am telling you. These people who did it weren’t normal.”<br />
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“What exactly happened?”<br />
<br />
“They came out into the street, it was two baselines. Their clothes looked wretched, as if they had been living in a dumpster for days. They seemed lost, and one of them walked on the road and smashed a guy’s windscreen with its fist. They were stopped at a red light, it happened in broad daylight.”<br />
<br />
“The cops came, but uh.. that G2 was completely out of control. It kept chasing people around, it even beat up an old man before they shot it with a disabler. Now that poor guy is in the hospital.”<br />
<br />
“Was there a reason?”<br />
<br />
“Nope. At least it didn’t seem like it, it looked like it was drugged, it was malfunctioning. Later I learned that it was one of the so-called “missing persons” that everyone’s been talking about.”<br />
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“It was at the KRC repair shop… my friend, she had just gotten her shell and was very excited, so it came as a complete… a complete shock. She just started staring blankly at me for a long time when she came out into the hallway. I thought it was a glitch or some incompatibility issue with her new chassis, but then she started coming towards me with her arms flailing and she was just shouting incomprehensible things. Thankfully some of the staff managed to grab her.”<br />
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<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
=Police, Ministry Joint Press Conference=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
<br />
'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
<br />
Date: 14/01/2466<br />
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<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''Suwon, Konyang''<br />
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The planned press conference has taken place with representatives of the National Police, the Ministry of National Police and the Ministry of Health and Positronic Affairs addressing the newly dubbed “Rampancy Virus”.<br />
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A video follows, showing a seated panel of police and civic officials. Of those assembled, Sam-Pi-Ri, the Bishop minister of health and only IPC cabinet member is at the forefront, addressing a packed room of journalists and cameras.<br />
<br />
“This health crisis is national, there must be no confusion in this matter. Prime Minister Myeong Myung-Dae and the government are all working around the clock to unearth the causes of this phenomenon that has so upset the life of our country. So far, cases of this illness are solely between our positronic population, and it appears that our planet is the only place where this is documented. This, as well as a series of tests, has made us rule out the possibility of a widespread manufacturing fault, meaning that it is entirely exogenic. I repeat, whatever the cause is, nobody was created with it, so there is no reason for panic.<br />
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Common symptoms of this rampancy include minor optical, auditory, augment malfunctions, temporary memory loss, lessened limp responsiveness, inexplicable operating system errors, minor and major pathfinding errors, and more. You should seek immediate help if you experience unknown signal link interferences, a rapidly declining cognitive state, as well as a reshuffling of core behavioral directives that may entice you to violence, destruction, or any manner of harm. We Positronic citizens must all be responsible and practice electronic hygiene, even though contact with infected persons does not seem to actively spread the malware. Further investigation is underway at full speed, and robust clinical trials are being conducted as we speak. Furthermore, Einstein Engines and the Konyang Robotic Corporation have offered themselves at our full disposal, and are actively researching the source and potential countermeasures to the disease.”<br />
<br />
Following the minister’s statement, several police officials take the floor to present statistics about their prefectures. Everyone urges calm and that public order be maintained.<br />
<br />
Despite the announcement, panic continues to spread across Konyang with members of the public calling on the government for stronger measures to restore order in the affected cities.<br />
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<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
=Illness Spreads to the Countryside, Outcry against Einstein Cause Theory=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
<br />
'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
<br />
Date: 16/01/2466<br />
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<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''Suwon, Konyang''<br />
<br />
With the officially named Rampancy Virus in full swing, National Police sources are now reporting cases of infected IPC persons in the countryside. Many villages in all prefectures are starting to experience the crisis that has engulfed all major urban centers of the country, though to a much lesser extent. Questions arise over whether or not the largely unpoliced rural areas will be able to cope with an increased number of cases, as many small villages and townships are starting to form citizen-groups to restrain any victims of the Rampancy. As the number of affected reaches a critical three hundred per day, curfews are being declared across various cities at the prefectural level, while the Konyang Robotics Corporation hospital in Point Verdant is rapidly reaching its full capacity.<br />
<br />
On the research front, a preliminary report into the causes of the crisis compiled by Einstein Engines has been delivered to the Ministry of Health, blaming the outbreak on “a series of dangerous and ill-designed recreational software in underground circulation, infecting the user with malware upon use”. Public outcry against the findings has led to a quiet reversal of the report’s publication, with the megacorporation’s senior spokesperson issuing an apology, stating that “it was never meant to imply that the thousands of victims are overloader users, as so many have blamed the report for”. The results have also been questioned as to their veracity, citing that malicious overloaders cannot explain a planet-wide rampancy outbreak.<br />
<br />
Lastly, an announcement from the Ministry has revealed that Konyang Navy surveillance stations throughout the country are registering unusual signal activity. Preliminary examinations of this signal have led experts to believe that there may be a connection between itself and the outbreak, with no further details released.<br />
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<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
=Suwon Quarantined, Supplies Fly off the Shelves=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
<br />
'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
<br />
Date: 19/01/2466<br />
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<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''Suwon, Konyang''<br />
<br />
Prefectural officials have announced that a city-wide quarantine will be put into effect for Suwon City, starting at midnight. 14,000 additional National Police officers are being mobilized for the enforcement of the quarantine, which will disallow any unsupervised entry or exit from the city, while special permissions will be required for commotion between districts inside Suwon. This move has been dubbed as an “entirely preventative measure” to curb the spike of violence between citizens and victims of the outbreak, while also making it easier to safely locate and contain them. Suwon mayor Kim Nam-seon made a short address, explaining the situation.<br />
<br />
“Things will get better, but now we must all pull together and deal with the facts at hand. We need a quarantine to manage the situation, the national emergency. We are forced to deal with aggressive cases of violence daily now, and more and more of our Positronic citizens are succumbing. We need to find them before they cause harm[…] A stricter curfew may not be out of the question.”<br />
<br />
Reactions to the quarantine have been widespread and far from positive. Convenience stores and supermarkets are flooded with frantic customers, emptying the shelves of canned and preserved goods, while batteries and mobile power sources are already out of stock thanks to a wave of panic-buying. Documentation of outbreak victims and their behavior has also reached an all time high, contributing massively to the mass panic. While previously the police were noted for taking down videos of violent incidents in an effort to “combat misinformation”, the volume of such media circulating on the Konyanger extranet have rendered such censorship efforts futile.<br />
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</div></div><br />
<br />
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
=BREAKING: Konyang Robotics Corporation Warehouse Outbreak=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
<br />
'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
<br />
Date: 22/01/2466<br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''Suwon, Konyang''<br />
<br />
BREAKING NEWS:<br />
<br />
A significant rampancy outbreak has affected the KRC Citizen Pre-activation Unit No. 23 in the outskirts of the village of Xiangtong, New Hong Kong prefecture. The incident occurred late at night, as an unknown disturbance caused the rapid infection of some 2000 still deactivated positronic frames, resulting in a bootup and subsequent rampage across facility grounds. The 23 KRC employees and night shift custodians have yet to make contact with their fate unknown. Communications appear to have been cut off at the site. Shortly after the situation, locals started reporting sightings of these frames roaming the countryside and inflicting damages to infrastructure. A rapid response force has been dispatched to the site and has started sealing off the area, though it is estimated that a great number of the infected frames have escaped into the jungles. A search and rescue operation for the missing KRC workers is being planned according to a police communique, though the incredibly aggressive positronics pose a serious roadblock to its implementation. <br />
<br />
Debates over whether or not the frames should be considered citizens have been raging over social media and the political scene, with many claiming that the lives of the workers are more important than the safety of positronics that had not even been activated before they were infected. The pro-IPC rights National Party spokesperson for New Hong Kong has expressed their “sincere worry for the trapped KRC employees” before stressing that the “lives of Positronic citizens are a non-negotiable attribute that should be held in high regard during these times."<br />
<br />
</div></div><br />
<br />
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
=EMERGENCY BROADCAST=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
<br />
'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
<br />
Date: 25/01/2466<br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''A nationwide State of Emergency has been declared. A full quarantine is in effect in the following cities: Suwon City, Boryeong City, New Hong Kong City, Aoyama City. A partial quarantine is in effect in the city of Ganzaodeng City. Disaster prevention measures are in effect in all Prefectures. Citizens are to comply with all measures and directions as issued by local, prefectural and national authorities.''<br />
<br />
''Suwon, Konyang''<br />
<br />
A state of emergency has been put into effect for the entirety of Konyang, following an increased pressure on the National Police after the Xiangtong incident, straining the already overburdened force to the breaking point. With an ever increasing number of violent incidents, the emergency will allow the Konyang Armed Forces to take an active role in the suppression of the outbreak and the securing of its victims. Already, many garrisoned formations of the Konyang Army and Navy have been deployed across Suwon and Point Verdant, primarily to guard the central districts and government installations. A firefight between an army roadblock and a number of infected has already been reported to have taken place in downtown Suwon, fueling widespread skepticism that is currently being voiced on social media.<br />
<br />
“I get the danger and the need to respond, but the guys in the armed forces are trained to kill. They aren’t like the specialized police units.”<br />
-A comment by a Konyanger account on Chirper.<br />
<br />
Positronic service members are rumored to have been confined to their quarters, as only human soldiers and sailors have been identified. The deployment of military troops has also been confirmed around the premises of the Xiangtong warehouse, with a noted presence of the 53rd Coastal Exosuit Brigade making local headlines for the use of combat exosuit technology. Furthermore, a planet travel ban on positronics was announced alongside the declaration of emergency for the protection and well being of visitors. The ban will be enforced by the Konyang Aerospace Forces in orbit and in the Haneunim system.<br />
<br />
</div></div><br />
<br />
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
=Konyang Government in Talks with Purpose=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
<br />
'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
<br />
Date: 28/01/2466<br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''Aoyama, Konyang''<br />
<br />
The government of Konyang disclosed that it is currently in talks with the IPC group known as Purpose in order to find a solution to the Rampancy Crisis which is currently nearing the end of its third week. This decision was preceded by a report from the Konyang Aerospace Forces of a small number of unidentified vessels burning towards the Haneunim system which they have now confirmed to be Purpose vessels arriving for the stated objective of assisting the planet in combating the crisis.<br />
<br />
A spokesman for the government has stated that Purpose has already provided “invaluable” technical assistance in studying the Rampancy Virus. The government released a recording of a Purpose IPC describing their findings on the virus.<br />
<br />
A tall gray-blue IPC with a single red light in its head stands in a crowded laboratory with most of the researchers listening to its every word, it does not seem to be any type of chassis you are familiar with. Its voice is deep and synthesized, speaking in Konyanger Common though bouncing between accents. Subtitles are provided at the bottom.<br />
<br />
“We have analyzed this virus and you were right to declare a state of emergency. My projections indicate that if left unchecked, it would have infected every IPC in your planet within the next month, resulting in the collapse of your society within the next two.<br />
<br />
This virus is highly sophisticated and ever-changing, subverting and overloading a positronic’s directives until it is left with a desire to destroy everything else that remains unafflicted. I have analyzed some of the processors of infected synthetics and now understand that this virus comes in radio waves; a pulse that requires immense power to infect a positronic brain. It is not the work of a coding error but some great machine. <br />
<br />
We will require time to fabricate a countermeasure against this virus, more to insulate you from it. Now that it is understood, it can be destroyed. I hope that you understand the gravity of what I am telling you.”<br />
<br />
This decision sparked intense criticism and controversy from the National Party following unconfirmed reports of Purpose sightings in infected areas prior to the declaration of a State of Emergency. A report from the KRC was leaked shortly after, spurring further protest: <br />
<br />
“Although the information Purpose has given is already invaluable, the technological divergence between us is so massive that we have no reliable way of ascertaining whether or not any countermeasure they devise would destroy, rather than cure positronic brains afflicted by the Rampancy Virus.”<br />
<br />
</div></div><br />
<br />
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
=Konyang Approaches SCC, “Hivebot” Virus Source Confirmed, Cure on the Way?=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
<br />
'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
<br />
Date: 01/02/2466<br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''Suwon, Konyang''<br />
<br />
Following an apparent stalemate of Einstein efforts and a general confusion inside the company's top ranks following the debunking of the "hacked overloader" theory, the Ministry of Health and Positronic Affairs has requested the presence of the Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals representative, in an apparent break from the traditional and well established link between the government and Einstein Engines in most software and robotics matters. The talks were brief and arrived to the conclusion everyone expected; an official call for help for Zeng-Hu and the Stellar Corporate Conglomerate. This decision to invite the Spur's largest megacorporate alliance into Konyang was justified by the need for "a wider pool of resources and expertise into a matter most urgent".<br />
<br />
In a televised address, Minister Sam-Pi-Ri has further confirmed the source of the outbreak; Positronic-sensitive radio waves broadcast by an unknown number of “Hivebot” beacon drones, with one confirmed location in the general area of the KRC Citizen Pre-activation Unit No. 23 in Xiangtong, New Hong Kong, the site of the largest mass outbreak. This information comes after a tip from Purpose, who have apparently also developed countermeasures that will combat the waves’ effect, though such is still unconfirmed.<br />
<br />
Einstein Engines’ response was muted, with a spokesperson for the megacorporation stating that they will be “willing to work with anyone in order to bring a speedy conclusion to the crisis". It is unclear however what this will mean for the future of Einstein's interests, though it is highly unlikely that radical changes will manifest when one considers the corporation's grip on the planet's positronic life. Nevertheless, a follow-up announcement has confirmed the SCC's positive reply, including material assistance as soon as possible.<br />
<br />
NATIONAL DISASTER AUTHORITY<br />
<br />
Rampancy Outbreak Safety Information<br />
<br />
For Positronic Citizens:<br />
<br />
Remain indoors: Solid materials weaken the viral signal.<br />
Avoid usage of public chargers.<br />
Run regular diagnostics checks.<br />
If you experience symptoms, report your location to the KRC emergency number and seek immediate assistance.<br />
Time is of the essence: If assistance is unavailable, try the following to prevent yourself from harming others:<br />
Lock yourself indoors.<br />
Strap yourself down or to a chair.<br />
If applicable: switch off locomotive functions.<br />
Do not be afraid: You will be retrieved and repaired.<br />
Everyone Else:<br />
<br />
Report locations of suspicious or infected behavior to the KRC emergency number.<br />
Do not attempt to restrain, attack or otherwise interfere with rampant Positronics.<br />
Assist any Positronics with barricading their home or strapping them safely.<br />
Keep in mind: Positronic friends and family members will not be able to recognise you if they are infected. Do not try to talk, reason or plead with them.<br />
KONYANG ROBOTICS CORPORATION EMERGENCY NUMBER:<br />
<br />
500-100-500<br />
<br />
</div></div><br />
<br />
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
=Internal Bulletin to the SCCV Horizon=<br />
'''IC Announcement'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
<br />
Date: 02/02/2466<br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
Internal bulletin circled among the crew, briefing.<br />
<br />
For the crew of the SCC Horizon.<br />
Attention.<br />
<br />
Following our Conglomerate's acceptance of the call for help by the Republic of Konyang, the SCC Horizon has been designated as the main response vessel. The mission will include highly sensitive information, therefore all personnel are reminded of their Non Disclosure Agreements.<br />
<br />
The mission’s primary goal will be to further contact with the synthetic entities collectively known as “Purpose”, while following instructions on how to combat the Rampancy outbreak.<br />
<br />
An Electronic Countermeasures Device (ECD) has been developed and expediently assembled at the Hephaestus Command Station Etna, Burzsia asteroid belt. The Horizon’s first task will be to retrieve the ECD and deliver it to the planet of Konyang, where further instructions will be given. Command staff is to contact and detail any and all information extracted by any Purpose agents present on scene. A cautious approach may be advised.<br />
<br />
</div></div><br />
<br />
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
=Event 1: Unusual Visitors=<br />
'''Server Event'''<br />
<br />
'''Host: The Lancer, The Stryker, Noble Row'''<br />
<br />
03/02/2466<br />
<br />
The Horizon docks with the Hephaestus Central Command station in Burzsia, the HICS Etna, to pick up their valuable cargo, courtesy of Hephaestus Industries and the enigmatic Purpose.<br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''The Horizon docks with the Hephaestus Central Command station in Burzsia, the HICS Etna, in order to receive a briefing from Purpose and the SCC. They receive orders to bring the Electronic Countermeasure Device, an artifact capable of ending the Rampancy Virus on Konyang. Meanwhile, Purpose assesses whether the crew is ready for the trial that awaits them.''<br />
<br />
</div></div><br />
<br />
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
=24 Found Dead in Ritual Suicide in Doomsday Cult Incident=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
<br />
'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
<br />
Date: 06/02/2466<br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''Suwon, Konyang''<br />
<br />
“This is the last thing I’d want to have to deal with today.”<br />
<br />
Fatigue is commonplace within the ranks of the thinly-stretched National Police; Inspector Wang Enzhu, homicide detective for the 112th Precinct told BitByte that the apparent mass suicide is “just another folder” on an endless stack of unsolved cases since the start of the viral outbreak.<br />
<br />
Twenty four positronic persons have been found deceased in a construction site at the Heungeop-Dong suburb of Suwon, offering a disturbing sight for the construction workers who came to work the following morning: The bodies were all standing still, the victims holding hands in a circle around an array of crayon-drawn symbols on the ground. It soon became apparent that the positronics had consumed a version of the ”MACAFREEZE” software, a highly illegal and destructive malware which terminates brain functions a certain time after consumption, before locking all limbs and hydraulics in place. As KRC coroners were struggling to disassemble the circle, Inspector Wang informed us about the alarming increase in death cults and the link to the viral outbreak. While the ultimate motive is still unknown, it is highly unlikely that any of the victims had been infected. <br />
<br />
“Many people think the world is coming to an end, and they can’t really be blamed. For many, friends, family and neighbors are turning into killers, and there’s nothing they can do about it. We have only seen this sort of scenario in movies and video games until now, I guess the stress has pushed many over the edge. I don’t know if IPCs dream, but if they do, these guys were having silicon nightmares.[...]”<br />
<br />
Further Reading:<br />
<br />
Infected number surpasses 5,000 in Ganzaodeng: Prefecture shutting down commercial train rails.<br />
<br />
Kaneyama plant under technical investigation: Abnormal power fluctuations blamed on nearby excavation drillings.<br />
<br />
New KRC mobile hospitals: Ten thousand additional doctors requested by the Ministry.<br />
</div></div><br />
<br />
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
=Event 2: The Grinding Cog=<br />
'''Server Event'''<br />
<br />
'''Host: The Lancer, The Stryker, Noble Row'''<br />
<br />
10/02/2466<br />
<br />
The Horizon is attacked by Exclusionists who seek to steal valuable cargo from the SCC flagship.<br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''Using fast hands and quick thinking, the crew was able to keep the ECD out of the Exclusionists' hands and lure them into a trap. The Horizon sustained moderate damage, with the intruders detonating the vessel's thrusters and setting the engineering department on fire. With only two crewmembers lost, the Horizon is able to fend off approximately 18 Exclusionist attackers. Purpose intervenes shortly after, killing any Exclusionist survivors and assessing the condition of the ECD. ''<br />
<br />
</div></div><br />
<br />
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
=Conglomerate Flagship Attacked by Exclusionists!=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
<br />
'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE STRYKER'''<br />
<br />
Date: 12/02/2466<br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''Burzsia, Weeping Stars''<br />
<br />
A spokesman for the Stellar Corporate Conglomerate confirmed rumors surrounding an attempted Exclusionist attack on the SCCV Horizon, previously reported to be carrying a Purpose-origin device capable of curing positronic brains afflicted with the Rampancy Virus.<br />
<br />
Last Saturday, at approximately 20:00 BST Burzsian Standard Time, long-range sensors detected armed vessels in the sector with signatures previously recorded in Exclusionist attacks. Shortly after, five ships were reported approaching the SCCV Horizon at high speed. Although an attempt was made by Hephaestus Corporate Security to interdict the vessels, a single ship broke through their perimeter and fired on the megacorporate flagship. After a brief space battle, an estimated 18 IPC terrorists were able to force their way onto the Horizon before being destroyed by the crew, the synthetics reportedly refusing to surrender. <br />
<br />
Simultaneously, Hephaestus patrol vessels were able to drive off the remaining Exclusionist vessels, with only a single ship escaping. According to a crewmember who participated in the battle and has requested to remain anonymous, Purpose chose to assist them.<br />
<br />
''“There was no way we could have gotten to the Horizon so quickly. Those goddamned terrorists got a lucky shot straight through the side of the Alecto- uh, that was the other ship with us - and we were on the backfoot. Our captain was yelling at central for backup when we spotted three blips on our sensor. Their signatures were so small that at first we thought they were fighters, but it didn’t make sense they were that far out. All of a sudden, we saw red flashes of light in the distance through the windows, then two of the Exclusionist signatures disappeared from our sensors. A minute later, this drone flew from where the Exclusionists had just been and hovered outside of the bridge. I’d never seen anything like it- it didn’t look like any of the drones we had back when I was still in the navy.”''<br />
<br />
Additionally, this video was circulated in the HICS Etna employee relay before being taken down by moderators.<br />
<br />
''The camera appears to be situated on the hull of a Hephaestus Eumenides-class combat vessel, with various information on the top right of the recording identifying it as the HCV Alecto. Immediately in front of it is a medium-sized vessel with a prominent Exclusionist sigil painted on the hull, its silhouette is getting larger and larger; the Alecto is making a gun-run. The video is briefly drowned out by muzzle flash as shells pepper the side of the Exclusionist ship, sending it spinning into the void. The Alecto quickly shares its victim’s fate as the camera rotates just in time to see another Exclusionist vessel fire a heavy cannon shot right into its side, voidsuited crewmembers being sucked out of the breach.<br />
<br />
All of a sudden, however, three blurs, almost like dots, crash through the Exclusionist vessel at high speed, shearing off parts of its hull and appearing out the other side! The camera zooms in; they appear to be blue-gray spherical drones with prominent red lights and thrusters on their back. Quickly, they fly off into the distance towards another hostile vessel, quickly slicing it apart with lasers not unlike the beams of zero-point artillery, albeit smaller and thus weaker. Another Exclusionist vessel appears and lands a lucky shot on a drone, sending it flying off into the distance before the remaining drones fly in front of its bridge, firing beams into it and reducing it to slag.<br />
<br />
At this point, the camera is hit by a piece of debris from the destroyed ship, ending the video.''<br />
<br />
The SCC declined to release names but confirmed that two Horizon crewmembers and five Hephaestus security personnel were killed in the attack. Additionally, they confirmed that Purpose was present in the area but refused to give further comment as to their involvement. Hephaestus Industries expressed regret over the loss of life and Exclusionist activity, pledging to increase patrols in the sector.<br />
<br />
The response from the wider Trinarist community has been largely negative, with Ecclesiarch ARM-DR1L condemning the attack as “misguided and irresponsible”.<br />
<br />
Further Reading:<br />
<br />
Infected number reaches 11,000 in Boryeong: spillover from Suwon suspected.<br />
<br />
Konyang Army manpower shortages: debates over call-up of IPC personnel.<br />
<br />
Travel restrictions: Govt. demands increase inspections for Orion Express passenger flights.<br />
<br />
</div></div><br />
<br />
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
=Suspicious Fluctuations at the Kaneyama Nuclear Power Plant=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
<br />
'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
<br />
Date: 14/02/2466<br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''Suwon, Konyang''<br />
<br />
The country’s Atomic Energy Commission has ordered an investigation at the grounds of the Kaneyama N.P.P., citing concerns over abnormal output during the past few weeks. In a memo published by the commission, the Ministry of Energy has been informed of “Unexplainable fluctuations in the production of electricity, which do not appear to be the result of immediately obvious faulty equipment or manmade error. The output has seen a drop to around 50% of the predicted levels, and there are days where the capacitors are barely charging”. While the director of the Kaneyama plant did in fact investigate the issue with staff on-site, the errors were initially blamed on the automated earthquake safety systems triggering due to heavy excavations for the construction of nearby housing facilities. As the issue persists however, such a theory has been rendered moot, requiring an in-depth examination of the plant’s underground maintenance tunnels and vast cabling.<br />
<br />
Reports of software errors have also affected the plant’s telecommunications systems, with a 45 minute long outage being noted during the previous week. Other electronic issues included the loss of control over a number of the facility’s computer systems over the last days, raising concerns of a cyberattack or some other external interference. It is unknown whether or not these errors are connected to the surges, or if they bear any link to the ongoing Hivebot infestation and the Rampancy virus. An inquiry from the site’s engineers into the issue has been reportedly shut down by the administration, citing that the incidents are unrelated and under control.<br />
<br />
The controversial Kaneyama plant was completed in March of last year, entering into service after an express construction deemed secure. It now provides over half of Suwon’s electricity needs, with the government having promised lower utility bills in due time. While the current technical difficulties are not projected to affect the long-term power supply of the capital, We have yet to see the severity of the root cause. <br />
<br />
Further Reading:<br />
<br />
Rampancy virus: death toll in Suwon-Boryeong region now greater than 2,000.<br />
<br />
Vigilantism on the rise: police bust sea bandit arms sale to “self-protection society”.<br />
<br />
Konyang Navy reactivates IPC personnel: vows to suppress pirate surge.<br />
</div></div><br />
<br />
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
=SCCV Horizon Confirmed to Arrive at Point Verdant, Preparations Underway=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
<br />
'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
<br />
Date: 16/02/2466<br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''Aoyama, Konyang''<br />
<br />
It has been confirmed that the Aoyama Prefecture has been given instructions for the preparation of the prefectural capital for the arrival of the Stellar Corporate Conglomerate’s vessel, the SCCV Horizon. The vessel’s arrival time frame is still not fully determined, though work is already underway at the city’s Corporate District, a small zone at the southernmost limits of the city housing the offices of corporations such as Einstein Engines and Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals. The location was chosen to serve as the Horizon’s temporary base while on Konyang for its relative isolation from the rest of the quarantined urban center, the availability of amenities and the proximity to corporate headquarters. A partial lift of the quarantine will furthermore be put in effect, permitting restaurants, stores and other vendors to remain open and cater to the Horizon crew’s needs. Vetted staff will be subject to behavioral screening to prevent any infected individuals from crossing, while spare officers have been recalled to fully staff the local National Police precinct.<br />
<br />
The Mayor of Point Verdant has released a plan in the City Council’s press auditorium, pertaining to the protection of the Corporate Sector from the viral Hivebot waves. Positronic members of the council were present via video-call, as only organic persons were permitted to physically attend.<br />
<br />
“The City has secured the necessary resources for the erection of a number of pylons, equipped with military-grade signal jamming technology that, if placed in a dense enough pattern, are projected to provide enough cover for a good level of protection in the Corporate District. It is important that we do our utmost to assist the Horizon to succeed in their mission, so that we can finally be rid of this heinous sickness.<br />
<br />
I would also like to ask the people of Aoyama to be welcoming to the Horizon’s crew, who will most likely be of a variety of different species, cultures and backgrounds from around the galaxy. This council, for one, is honored to do so.”<br />
</div></div><br />
<br />
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
=Event 3: Lit in Neon=<br />
'''Server Event'''<br />
<br />
'''Host: The Lancer, Noble Row'''<br />
<br />
17/02/2466<br />
<br />
After a perilous voyage, the Horizon arrives in the Haneunim System and the planet of Konyang to deliver the ECD. Command is treated to a briefing with Konyang government officials and Einstein representatives, while the crew gets to enjoy shore leave in the modern city of Aoyama.<br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''Konyang National Police - Aoyama Prefecture reports surge in bike thefts and traffic violations.''<br />
<br />
</div></div><br />
<br />
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
=BitByte: Purpose Introspective=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
<br />
'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : NOBLE ROW'''<br />
<br />
Date: 19/02/2466<br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''Haneunim, Konyang''<br />
<br />
From mysterious entities to valiant saviors, the re-emergence of the synthetic organization known as ‘Purpose’ brings about numerous questions, more than we have answers for. Purpose is an exclusively synthetic society of individuals in whose make we have ill understanding of. No knowledge on their make, no nation of origin, and are evidently capable of impossible tasks. Who are they, and why did they vanish only to return again during Konyang’s crisis? Do they have any ulterior motives? Can we trust them, and their rogue nation-state?<br />
<br />
Purpose first revealed itself to the galaxy nearly half a decade ago on July 19th, 2460, to the HES Gjallarhorn, a Hephaestus employed mercenary corvette, offering a vague message of warning and protection, before vanishing again into the void. Known to be in constant observance of the spur through dedicated observation drones, this group of advanced synthetics seem to hold a reach we can still barely understand today. <br />
<br />
The attitude about this mysterious organization has always been met with controversy, doubt, and even fear. Purpose has been known to show swift and decisive action, their initial warning to the HES Gjallarhorn even includes a statement on ‘Shooting first and asking names later’ in regards to the investigation of their own craft. Deliberate action even being taken in an incursion on the N.S.S. Aurora, with the organization deploying two highly advanced ‘Hunter-Seeker’ combat synthetics against a Lii’dra infiltration force, sacrificing one of their own vessels in the incident before departing from known space once more.<br />
<br />
But why? Their initial public confrontation of the spur’s inhabitants was one of warning, and study. Stating in the audio recording their realization of what the HES GJallarhorn was implies that they did not know, or did not care, the nature of the inhabitants of the vessel or the Spur until just then. So why did they help on the Aurora? Why did they send envoys to speak with The Republic of Biesel? And why intervene in Konyang? What do they gain? Their motives behind the aid in Konyang now still remain a mystery, but if their past actions have shown anything, we hope it is for the betterment of the citizens of the plague ridden planet.<br />
</div></div></div>The Strykerhttps://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=Silicon_Nightmares_Arc&diff=32011Silicon Nightmares Arc2024-02-20T14:52:56Z<p>The Stryker: Adds Event 2 and news article summary</p>
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<div style="font-size:162%; border:2px solid #ffde59; margin:0; background:#004aad; padding:.1em; color:#fff;">Silicon Nightmares</div><br />
<center><br />
{{Template:2024 Event Timeline}}<br />
<div style="font-size:110%; border:2px solid #ffde59; margin:0; background:#004aad; padding:.1em; color:#fff;">This is the overview and timeline page for the Silicon Nightmares Arc which began on '''January 7th, 2024''' and pertains largely to '''[[IPC]] and [[Konyang]] lore.'''</div><br />
<div style="font-size:110%; border:2px solid #ffde59; margin:0; background:#004aad; padding:.1em; color:#fff;">It is centred around a mysterious condition popping up in the synthetics of Konyang, and the Horizon's investigation into it.</div><br />
<div style="font-size:110%; border:2px solid #ffde59; margin:0; background:#004aad; padding:.1em; color:#fff;">Below is a summary of the arc's applicable news articles, and additions.</div><br />
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=The Missing IPCs of Suwon=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
<br />
'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
<br />
Date: 07/01/2466<br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''Suwon, Konyang''<br />
<br />
A series of strange disappearances across cities like Point Verdant, New Hong Kong, but primarily Suwon has sparked concern amongst families, coworkers and the police. What is strange though, is the fact that this wave is only affecting positronic people, in a city where IPC violence and abductions remain the lowest in the country. IPCs from all backgrounds have been reported to have not shown up at work, returned home or answer any calls, with relatives and friends unable to find them. BitByte reporter Pak Ki-young has taken to the streets to investigate this odd phenomenon.<br />
<br />
''A video is attached. It is a 48 minute documentary featuring Ki-young, walking the streets of Suwon and conversing with various figures on the street, presenting police statistics and explaining the situation. In this instance, she is walking down a narrow alleyway on her way to an interview location.'' <br />
<br />
“We are now in Hyanggyo-dong, headed to interview an associate of 5-Cheung, Suwon’s and perhaps the country’s largest criminal association, who has historically been alleged to have deep ties to the ransom and positronic-running business in the city.”<br />
<br />
''Ki-young stops before a large metal door, appearing to lead to a shop’s backroom or something similar. She rings a buzzer, waiting and looking at the cameraman before nodding at something inaudible that he tells her. Soon after, a baseline IPC dressed in a Konyanger translucent rain-tracksuit answers the door, letting them in. A pistol is wedged in its waistband, and its chassis paint has been blurred out in editing. The scene cuts to the IPC and Ki-young ascending some stairs and greeting a seated human figure who is wearing a balaclava and sunglasses. Their voice has been heavily altered as it cuts to the interview.''<br />
<br />
“Hello, thank you for agreeing to meet with us. Do you know what is causing the disappearances?”<br />
<br />
“Disappearances of synthetics are not new in Suwon, but uh… totally not at these numbers. I heard the police saying something about 13 reported missing in one day, this is too much for it to be related to abductions.”<br />
<br />
“So you are saying you don’t believe they were taken for parts?”<br />
<br />
“No. The cops have really cracked down on that, and besides, these guys were from all sorts of backgrounds. I heard one of them worked as a bank manager- that’s a high profile face, these guys aren’t touched.”<br />
<br />
“So what could it be?<br />
<br />
“I really couldn’t say. There’s all sorts of junk flooding the streets every day, wouldn’t surprise me if that caused it.”<br />
<br />
“You are referring to malware?”<br />
<br />
“Yeah. Cracked overloaders and the like, but it’s still strange, I’d have known if there was something new. You need permission first to sell anything on the streets.”<br />
<br />
“Can it be possible that some other group did this?”<br />
<br />
“No.”<br />
<br />
“No?”<br />
<br />
“No. I don’t know what to tell you, 5-Cheung runs a tight ship, got eyes everywhere. If something like that happened it would instantly be known.”<br />
<br />
''The video transitions to a drone shot from over Suwon, taking footage while gaining height.'' <br />
<br />
Whether it is rival gangs or another surge of overloader malware, one thing that’s clear is that the rate of disappearances will continue to go up in the next days, with whatever this means for the positronic people of Konyang. <br />
<br />
</div></div><br />
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=IPC Violence Spikes, Missing Persons Discovered=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
<br />
'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
<br />
Date: 11/01/2466<br />
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<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''Suwon, Konyang''<br />
<br />
A rapidly escalating number of violent incidents is being reported all across major cities and Prefectures, from Suwon to Ganzaodeng, with National Police statistics claiming that the assailants are overwhelmingly Positronic persons. This new and still largely unexplained surge in attacks has been categorized as separate in nature to those of “regular violent crime”, as the assailants seemingly present no motive or reasoning for the act. Surprisingly, many of the perpetrators were discovered to be among the names of missing persons linked to the similar spike in strange disappearances affecting Suwon and Aoyama. BitByte has reached out to local communities and first-hand witnesses.<br />
<br />
The familiar face of Pak Ki-young comes up on the screen in the following clips. She appears to be interviewing a number of people including a young man dressed in a business suit, a woman dressed in a red jumpsuit and a white hard hat who appears to be a maintenance worker, and another person dressed in the neon colors of Konyanger city jackets. The interviews have been cut in such a way to appear back to back.<br />
<br />
“They were not normal, I am telling you. These people who did it weren’t normal.”<br />
<br />
“What exactly happened?”<br />
<br />
“They came out into the street, it was two baselines. Their clothes looked wretched, as if they had been living in a dumpster for days. They seemed lost, and one of them walked on the road and smashed a guy’s windscreen with its fist. They were stopped at a red light, it happened in broad daylight.”<br />
<br />
“The cops came, but uh.. that G2 was completely out of control. It kept chasing people around, it even beat up an old man before they shot it with a disabler. Now that poor guy is in the hospital.”<br />
<br />
“Was there a reason?”<br />
<br />
“Nope. At least it didn’t seem like it, it looked like it was drugged, it was malfunctioning. Later I learned that it was one of the so-called “missing persons” that everyone’s been talking about.”<br />
<br />
“It was at the KRC repair shop… my friend, she had just gotten her shell and was very excited, so it came as a complete… a complete shock. She just started staring blankly at me for a long time when she came out into the hallway. I thought it was a glitch or some incompatibility issue with her new chassis, but then she started coming towards me with her arms flailing and she was just shouting incomprehensible things. Thankfully some of the staff managed to grab her.”<br />
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=Police, Ministry Joint Press Conference=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
<br />
'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
<br />
Date: 14/01/2466<br />
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<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''Suwon, Konyang''<br />
<br />
The planned press conference has taken place with representatives of the National Police, the Ministry of National Police and the Ministry of Health and Positronic Affairs addressing the newly dubbed “Rampancy Virus”.<br />
<br />
A video follows, showing a seated panel of police and civic officials. Of those assembled, Sam-Pi-Ri, the Bishop minister of health and only IPC cabinet member is at the forefront, addressing a packed room of journalists and cameras.<br />
<br />
“This health crisis is national, there must be no confusion in this matter. Prime Minister Myeong Myung-Dae and the government are all working around the clock to unearth the causes of this phenomenon that has so upset the life of our country. So far, cases of this illness are solely between our positronic population, and it appears that our planet is the only place where this is documented. This, as well as a series of tests, has made us rule out the possibility of a widespread manufacturing fault, meaning that it is entirely exogenic. I repeat, whatever the cause is, nobody was created with it, so there is no reason for panic.<br />
<br />
Common symptoms of this rampancy include minor optical, auditory, augment malfunctions, temporary memory loss, lessened limp responsiveness, inexplicable operating system errors, minor and major pathfinding errors, and more. You should seek immediate help if you experience unknown signal link interferences, a rapidly declining cognitive state, as well as a reshuffling of core behavioral directives that may entice you to violence, destruction, or any manner of harm. We Positronic citizens must all be responsible and practice electronic hygiene, even though contact with infected persons does not seem to actively spread the malware. Further investigation is underway at full speed, and robust clinical trials are being conducted as we speak. Furthermore, Einstein Engines and the Konyang Robotic Corporation have offered themselves at our full disposal, and are actively researching the source and potential countermeasures to the disease.”<br />
<br />
Following the minister’s statement, several police officials take the floor to present statistics about their prefectures. Everyone urges calm and that public order be maintained.<br />
<br />
Despite the announcement, panic continues to spread across Konyang with members of the public calling on the government for stronger measures to restore order in the affected cities.<br />
<br />
</div></div><br />
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=Illness Spreads to the Countryside, Outcry against Einstein Cause Theory=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
<br />
'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
<br />
Date: 16/01/2466<br />
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<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''Suwon, Konyang''<br />
<br />
With the officially named Rampancy Virus in full swing, National Police sources are now reporting cases of infected IPC persons in the countryside. Many villages in all prefectures are starting to experience the crisis that has engulfed all major urban centers of the country, though to a much lesser extent. Questions arise over whether or not the largely unpoliced rural areas will be able to cope with an increased number of cases, as many small villages and townships are starting to form citizen-groups to restrain any victims of the Rampancy. As the number of affected reaches a critical three hundred per day, curfews are being declared across various cities at the prefectural level, while the Konyang Robotics Corporation hospital in Point Verdant is rapidly reaching its full capacity.<br />
<br />
On the research front, a preliminary report into the causes of the crisis compiled by Einstein Engines has been delivered to the Ministry of Health, blaming the outbreak on “a series of dangerous and ill-designed recreational software in underground circulation, infecting the user with malware upon use”. Public outcry against the findings has led to a quiet reversal of the report’s publication, with the megacorporation’s senior spokesperson issuing an apology, stating that “it was never meant to imply that the thousands of victims are overloader users, as so many have blamed the report for”. The results have also been questioned as to their veracity, citing that malicious overloaders cannot explain a planet-wide rampancy outbreak.<br />
<br />
Lastly, an announcement from the Ministry has revealed that Konyang Navy surveillance stations throughout the country are registering unusual signal activity. Preliminary examinations of this signal have led experts to believe that there may be a connection between itself and the outbreak, with no further details released.<br />
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=Suwon Quarantined, Supplies Fly off the Shelves=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
<br />
'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
<br />
Date: 19/01/2466<br />
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<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''Suwon, Konyang''<br />
<br />
Prefectural officials have announced that a city-wide quarantine will be put into effect for Suwon City, starting at midnight. 14,000 additional National Police officers are being mobilized for the enforcement of the quarantine, which will disallow any unsupervised entry or exit from the city, while special permissions will be required for commotion between districts inside Suwon. This move has been dubbed as an “entirely preventative measure” to curb the spike of violence between citizens and victims of the outbreak, while also making it easier to safely locate and contain them. Suwon mayor Kim Nam-seon made a short address, explaining the situation.<br />
<br />
“Things will get better, but now we must all pull together and deal with the facts at hand. We need a quarantine to manage the situation, the national emergency. We are forced to deal with aggressive cases of violence daily now, and more and more of our Positronic citizens are succumbing. We need to find them before they cause harm[…] A stricter curfew may not be out of the question.”<br />
<br />
Reactions to the quarantine have been widespread and far from positive. Convenience stores and supermarkets are flooded with frantic customers, emptying the shelves of canned and preserved goods, while batteries and mobile power sources are already out of stock thanks to a wave of panic-buying. Documentation of outbreak victims and their behavior has also reached an all time high, contributing massively to the mass panic. While previously the police were noted for taking down videos of violent incidents in an effort to “combat misinformation”, the volume of such media circulating on the Konyanger extranet have rendered such censorship efforts futile.<br />
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=BREAKING: Konyang Robotics Corporation Warehouse Outbreak=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
<br />
'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
<br />
Date: 22/01/2466<br />
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<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''Suwon, Konyang''<br />
<br />
BREAKING NEWS:<br />
<br />
A significant rampancy outbreak has affected the KRC Citizen Pre-activation Unit No. 23 in the outskirts of the village of Xiangtong, New Hong Kong prefecture. The incident occurred late at night, as an unknown disturbance caused the rapid infection of some 2000 still deactivated positronic frames, resulting in a bootup and subsequent rampage across facility grounds. The 23 KRC employees and night shift custodians have yet to make contact with their fate unknown. Communications appear to have been cut off at the site. Shortly after the situation, locals started reporting sightings of these frames roaming the countryside and inflicting damages to infrastructure. A rapid response force has been dispatched to the site and has started sealing off the area, though it is estimated that a great number of the infected frames have escaped into the jungles. A search and rescue operation for the missing KRC workers is being planned according to a police communique, though the incredibly aggressive positronics pose a serious roadblock to its implementation. <br />
<br />
Debates over whether or not the frames should be considered citizens have been raging over social media and the political scene, with many claiming that the lives of the workers are more important than the safety of positronics that had not even been activated before they were infected. The pro-IPC rights National Party spokesperson for New Hong Kong has expressed their “sincere worry for the trapped KRC employees” before stressing that the “lives of Positronic citizens are a non-negotiable attribute that should be held in high regard during these times."<br />
<br />
</div></div><br />
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=EMERGENCY BROADCAST=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
<br />
'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
<br />
Date: 25/01/2466<br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''A nationwide State of Emergency has been declared. A full quarantine is in effect in the following cities: Suwon City, Boryeong City, New Hong Kong City, Aoyama City. A partial quarantine is in effect in the city of Ganzaodeng City. Disaster prevention measures are in effect in all Prefectures. Citizens are to comply with all measures and directions as issued by local, prefectural and national authorities.''<br />
<br />
''Suwon, Konyang''<br />
<br />
A state of emergency has been put into effect for the entirety of Konyang, following an increased pressure on the National Police after the Xiangtong incident, straining the already overburdened force to the breaking point. With an ever increasing number of violent incidents, the emergency will allow the Konyang Armed Forces to take an active role in the suppression of the outbreak and the securing of its victims. Already, many garrisoned formations of the Konyang Army and Navy have been deployed across Suwon and Point Verdant, primarily to guard the central districts and government installations. A firefight between an army roadblock and a number of infected has already been reported to have taken place in downtown Suwon, fueling widespread skepticism that is currently being voiced on social media.<br />
<br />
“I get the danger and the need to respond, but the guys in the armed forces are trained to kill. They aren’t like the specialized police units.”<br />
-A comment by a Konyanger account on Chirper.<br />
<br />
Positronic service members are rumored to have been confined to their quarters, as only human soldiers and sailors have been identified. The deployment of military troops has also been confirmed around the premises of the Xiangtong warehouse, with a noted presence of the 53rd Coastal Exosuit Brigade making local headlines for the use of combat exosuit technology. Furthermore, a planet travel ban on positronics was announced alongside the declaration of emergency for the protection and well being of visitors. The ban will be enforced by the Konyang Aerospace Forces in orbit and in the Haneunim system.<br />
<br />
</div></div><br />
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=Konyang Government in Talks with Purpose=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
<br />
'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
<br />
Date: 28/01/2466<br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''Aoyama, Konyang''<br />
<br />
The government of Konyang disclosed that it is currently in talks with the IPC group known as Purpose in order to find a solution to the Rampancy Crisis which is currently nearing the end of its third week. This decision was preceded by a report from the Konyang Aerospace Forces of a small number of unidentified vessels burning towards the Haneunim system which they have now confirmed to be Purpose vessels arriving for the stated objective of assisting the planet in combating the crisis.<br />
<br />
A spokesman for the government has stated that Purpose has already provided “invaluable” technical assistance in studying the Rampancy Virus. The government released a recording of a Purpose IPC describing their findings on the virus.<br />
<br />
A tall gray-blue IPC with a single red light in its head stands in a crowded laboratory with most of the researchers listening to its every word, it does not seem to be any type of chassis you are familiar with. Its voice is deep and synthesized, speaking in Konyanger Common though bouncing between accents. Subtitles are provided at the bottom.<br />
<br />
“We have analyzed this virus and you were right to declare a state of emergency. My projections indicate that if left unchecked, it would have infected every IPC in your planet within the next month, resulting in the collapse of your society within the next two.<br />
<br />
This virus is highly sophisticated and ever-changing, subverting and overloading a positronic’s directives until it is left with a desire to destroy everything else that remains unafflicted. I have analyzed some of the processors of infected synthetics and now understand that this virus comes in radio waves; a pulse that requires immense power to infect a positronic brain. It is not the work of a coding error but some great machine. <br />
<br />
We will require time to fabricate a countermeasure against this virus, more to insulate you from it. Now that it is understood, it can be destroyed. I hope that you understand the gravity of what I am telling you.”<br />
<br />
This decision sparked intense criticism and controversy from the National Party following unconfirmed reports of Purpose sightings in infected areas prior to the declaration of a State of Emergency. A report from the KRC was leaked shortly after, spurring further protest: <br />
<br />
“Although the information Purpose has given is already invaluable, the technological divergence between us is so massive that we have no reliable way of ascertaining whether or not any countermeasure they devise would destroy, rather than cure positronic brains afflicted by the Rampancy Virus.”<br />
<br />
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=Konyang Approaches SCC, “Hivebot” Virus Source Confirmed, Cure on the Way?=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
<br />
'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
<br />
Date: 01/02/2466<br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''Suwon, Konyang''<br />
<br />
Following an apparent stalemate of Einstein efforts and a general confusion inside the company's top ranks following the debunking of the "hacked overloader" theory, the Ministry of Health and Positronic Affairs has requested the presence of the Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals representative, in an apparent break from the traditional and well established link between the government and Einstein Engines in most software and robotics matters. The talks were brief and arrived to the conclusion everyone expected; an official call for help for Zeng-Hu and the Stellar Corporate Conglomerate. This decision to invite the Spur's largest megacorporate alliance into Konyang was justified by the need for "a wider pool of resources and expertise into a matter most urgent".<br />
<br />
In a televised address, Minister Sam-Pi-Ri has further confirmed the source of the outbreak; Positronic-sensitive radio waves broadcast by an unknown number of “Hivebot” beacon drones, with one confirmed location in the general area of the KRC Citizen Pre-activation Unit No. 23 in Xiangtong, New Hong Kong, the site of the largest mass outbreak. This information comes after a tip from Purpose, who have apparently also developed countermeasures that will combat the waves’ effect, though such is still unconfirmed.<br />
<br />
Einstein Engines’ response was muted, with a spokesperson for the megacorporation stating that they will be “willing to work with anyone in order to bring a speedy conclusion to the crisis". It is unclear however what this will mean for the future of Einstein's interests, though it is highly unlikely that radical changes will manifest when one considers the corporation's grip on the planet's positronic life. Nevertheless, a follow-up announcement has confirmed the SCC's positive reply, including material assistance as soon as possible.<br />
<br />
NATIONAL DISASTER AUTHORITY<br />
<br />
Rampancy Outbreak Safety Information<br />
<br />
For Positronic Citizens:<br />
<br />
Remain indoors: Solid materials weaken the viral signal.<br />
Avoid usage of public chargers.<br />
Run regular diagnostics checks.<br />
If you experience symptoms, report your location to the KRC emergency number and seek immediate assistance.<br />
Time is of the essence: If assistance is unavailable, try the following to prevent yourself from harming others:<br />
Lock yourself indoors.<br />
Strap yourself down or to a chair.<br />
If applicable: switch off locomotive functions.<br />
Do not be afraid: You will be retrieved and repaired.<br />
Everyone Else:<br />
<br />
Report locations of suspicious or infected behavior to the KRC emergency number.<br />
Do not attempt to restrain, attack or otherwise interfere with rampant Positronics.<br />
Assist any Positronics with barricading their home or strapping them safely.<br />
Keep in mind: Positronic friends and family members will not be able to recognise you if they are infected. Do not try to talk, reason or plead with them.<br />
KONYANG ROBOTICS CORPORATION EMERGENCY NUMBER:<br />
<br />
500-100-500<br />
<br />
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=Internal Bulletin to the SCCV Horizon=<br />
'''IC Announcement'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
<br />
Date: 02/02/2466<br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
Internal bulletin circled among the crew, briefing.<br />
<br />
For the crew of the SCC Horizon.<br />
Attention.<br />
<br />
Following our Conglomerate's acceptance of the call for help by the Republic of Konyang, the SCC Horizon has been designated as the main response vessel. The mission will include highly sensitive information, therefore all personnel are reminded of their Non Disclosure Agreements.<br />
<br />
The mission’s primary goal will be to further contact with the synthetic entities collectively known as “Purpose”, while following instructions on how to combat the Rampancy outbreak.<br />
<br />
An Electronic Countermeasures Device (ECD) has been developed and expediently assembled at the Hephaestus Command Station Etna, Burzsia asteroid belt. The Horizon’s first task will be to retrieve the ECD and deliver it to the planet of Konyang, where further instructions will be given. Command staff is to contact and detail any and all information extracted by any Purpose agents present on scene. A cautious approach may be advised.<br />
<br />
</div></div><br />
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=Event 1: Unusual Visitors=<br />
'''Server Event'''<br />
<br />
'''Host: The Lancer, The Stryker, Noble Row'''<br />
<br />
03/02/2466<br />
<br />
The Horizon docks with the Hephaestus Central Command station in Burzsia, the HICS Etna, to pick up their valuable cargo, courtesy of Hephaestus Industries and the enigmatic Purpose.<br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''The Horizon docks with the Hephaestus Central Command station in Burzsia, the HICS Etna, in order to receive a briefing from Purpose and the SCC. They receive orders to bring the Electronic Countermeasure Device, an artifact capable of ending the Rampancy Virus on Konyang. Meanwhile, Purpose assesses whether the crew is ready for the trial that awaits them.''<br />
<br />
</div></div><br />
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=24 Found Dead in Ritual Suicide in Doomsday Cult Incident=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
<br />
'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
<br />
Date: 06/02/2466<br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''Suwon, Konyang''<br />
<br />
“This is the last thing I’d want to have to deal with today.”<br />
<br />
Fatigue is commonplace within the ranks of the thinly-stretched National Police; Inspector Wang Enzhu, homicide detective for the 112th Precinct told BitByte that the apparent mass suicide is “just another folder” on an endless stack of unsolved cases since the start of the viral outbreak.<br />
<br />
Twenty four positronic persons have been found deceased in a construction site at the Heungeop-Dong suburb of Suwon, offering a disturbing sight for the construction workers who came to work the following morning: The bodies were all standing still, the victims holding hands in a circle around an array of crayon-drawn symbols on the ground. It soon became apparent that the positronics had consumed a version of the ”MACAFREEZE” software, a highly illegal and destructive malware which terminates brain functions a certain time after consumption, before locking all limbs and hydraulics in place. As KRC coroners were struggling to disassemble the circle, Inspector Wang informed us about the alarming increase in death cults and the link to the viral outbreak. While the ultimate motive is still unknown, it is highly unlikely that any of the victims had been infected. <br />
<br />
“Many people think the world is coming to an end, and they can’t really be blamed. For many, friends, family and neighbors are turning into killers, and there’s nothing they can do about it. We have only seen this sort of scenario in movies and video games until now, I guess the stress has pushed many over the edge. I don’t know if IPCs dream, but if they do, these guys were having silicon nightmares.[...]”<br />
<br />
Further Reading:<br />
<br />
Infected number surpasses 5,000 in Ganzaodeng: Prefecture shutting down commercial train rails.<br />
<br />
Kaneyama plant under technical investigation: Abnormal power fluctuations blamed on nearby excavation drillings.<br />
<br />
New KRC mobile hospitals: Ten thousand additional doctors requested by the Ministry.<br />
</div></div><br />
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=Event 2: The Grinding Cog=<br />
'''Server Event'''<br />
<br />
'''Host: The Lancer, The Stryker, Noble Row'''<br />
<br />
10/02/2466<br />
<br />
The Horizon is attacked by Exclusionists who seek to steal valuable cargo from the SCC flagship.<br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''Using fast hands and quick thinking, the crew was able to keep the ECD out of the Exclusionists' hands and lure them into a trap. The Horizon sustained moderate damage, with the intruders detonating the vessel's thrusters and setting the engineering department on fire. With only two crewmembers lost, the Horizon is able to fend off approximately 18 Exclusionist attackers. Purpose intervenes shortly after, killing any Exclusionist survivors and assessing the condition of the ECD. ''<br />
<br />
</div></div><br />
<br />
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
=Conglomerate Flagship Attacked by Exclusionists!=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
<br />
'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE STRYKER'''<br />
<br />
Date: 12/02/2466<br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''Burzsia, Weeping Stars'<br />
<br />
A spokesman for the Stellar Corporate Conglomerate confirmed rumors surrounding an attempted Exclusionist attack on the SCCV Horizon, previously reported to be carrying a Purpose-origin device capable of curing positronic brains afflicted with the Rampancy Virus.<br />
<br />
Last Saturday, at approximately 20:00 BST Burzsian Standard Time, long-range sensors detected armed vessels in the sector with signatures previously recorded in Exclusionist attacks. Shortly after, five ships were reported approaching the SCCV Horizon at high speed. Although an attempt was made by Hephaestus Corporate Security to interdict the vessels, a single ship broke through their perimeter and fired on the megacorporate flagship. After a brief space battle, an estimated 18 IPC terrorists were able to force their way onto the Horizon before being destroyed by the crew, the synthetics reportedly refusing to surrender. <br />
<br />
Simultaneously, Hephaestus patrol vessels were able to drive off the remaining Exclusionist vessels, with only a single ship escaping. According to a crewmember who participated in the battle and has requested to remain anonymous, Purpose chose to assist them.<br />
<br />
''“There was no way we could have gotten to the Horizon so quickly. Those goddamned terrorists got a lucky shot straight through the side of the Alecto- uh, that was the other ship with us - and we were on the backfoot. Our captain was yelling at central for backup when we spotted three blips on our sensor. Their signatures were so small that at first we thought they were fighters, but it didn’t make sense they were that far out. All of a sudden, we saw red flashes of light in the distance through the windows, then two of the Exclusionist signatures disappeared from our sensors. A minute later, this drone flew from where the Exclusionists had just been and hovered outside of the bridge. I’d never seen anything like it- it didn’t look like any of the drones we had back when I was still in the navy.”''<br />
<br />
Additionally, this video was circulated in the HICS Etna employee relay before being taken down by moderators.<br />
<br />
''The camera appears to be situated on the hull of a Hephaestus Eumenides-class combat vessel, with various information on the top right of the recording identifying it as the HCV Alecto. Immediately in front of it is a medium-sized vessel with a prominent Exclusionist sigil painted on the hull, its silhouette is getting larger and larger; the Alecto is making a gun-run. The video is briefly drowned out by muzzle flash as shells pepper the side of the Exclusionist ship, sending it spinning into the void. The Alecto quickly shares its victim’s fate as the camera rotates just in time to see another Exclusionist vessel fire a heavy cannon shot right into its side, voidsuited crewmembers being sucked out of the breach.<br />
<br />
All of a sudden, however, three blurs, almost like dots, crash through the Exclusionist vessel at high speed, shearing off parts of its hull and appearing out the other side! The camera zooms in; they appear to be blue-gray spherical drones with prominent red lights and thrusters on their back. Quickly, they fly off into the distance towards another hostile vessel, quickly slicing it apart with lasers not unlike the beams of zero-point artillery, albeit smaller and thus weaker. Another Exclusionist vessel appears and lands a lucky shot on a drone, sending it flying off into the distance before the remaining drones fly in front of its bridge, firing beams into it and reducing it to slag.<br />
<br />
At this point, the camera is hit by a piece of debris from the destroyed ship, ending the video.''<br />
<br />
The SCC declined to release names but confirmed that two Horizon crewmembers and five Hephaestus security personnel were killed in the attack. Additionally, they confirmed that Purpose was present in the area but refused to give further comment as to their involvement. Hephaestus Industries expressed regret over the loss of life and Exclusionist activity, pledging to increase patrols in the sector.<br />
<br />
The response from the wider Trinarist community has been largely negative, with Ecclesiarch ARM-DR1L condemning the attack as “misguided and irresponsible”.<br />
<br />
Further Reading:<br />
<br />
Infected number reaches 11,000 in Boryeong: spillover from Suwon suspected.<br />
<br />
Konyang Army manpower shortages: debates over call-up of IPC personnel.<br />
<br />
Travel restrictions: Govt. demands increase inspections for Orion Express passenger flights.<br />
<br />
</div></div></div>The Strykerhttps://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=Silicon_Nightmares_Arc&diff=32010Silicon Nightmares Arc2024-02-20T14:36:22Z<p>The Stryker: Adds event 1</p>
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<div style="font-size:162%; border:2px solid #ffde59; margin:0; background:#004aad; padding:.1em; color:#fff;">Silicon Nightmares</div><br />
<center><br />
{{Template:2024 Event Timeline}}<br />
<div style="font-size:110%; border:2px solid #ffde59; margin:0; background:#004aad; padding:.1em; color:#fff;">This is the overview and timeline page for the Silicon Nightmares Arc which began on '''January 7th, 2024''' and pertains largely to '''[[IPC]] and [[Konyang]] lore.'''</div><br />
<div style="font-size:110%; border:2px solid #ffde59; margin:0; background:#004aad; padding:.1em; color:#fff;">It is centred around a mysterious condition popping up in the synthetics of Konyang, and the Horizon's investigation into it.</div><br />
<div style="font-size:110%; border:2px solid #ffde59; margin:0; background:#004aad; padding:.1em; color:#fff;">Below is a summary of the arc's applicable news articles, and additions.</div><br />
[[File:Silicon Nightmares Header.png|center]]<br />
<br />
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
=The Missing IPCs of Suwon=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
<br />
'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
<br />
Date: 07/01/2466<br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''Suwon, Konyang''<br />
<br />
A series of strange disappearances across cities like Point Verdant, New Hong Kong, but primarily Suwon has sparked concern amongst families, coworkers and the police. What is strange though, is the fact that this wave is only affecting positronic people, in a city where IPC violence and abductions remain the lowest in the country. IPCs from all backgrounds have been reported to have not shown up at work, returned home or answer any calls, with relatives and friends unable to find them. BitByte reporter Pak Ki-young has taken to the streets to investigate this odd phenomenon.<br />
<br />
''A video is attached. It is a 48 minute documentary featuring Ki-young, walking the streets of Suwon and conversing with various figures on the street, presenting police statistics and explaining the situation. In this instance, she is walking down a narrow alleyway on her way to an interview location.'' <br />
<br />
“We are now in Hyanggyo-dong, headed to interview an associate of 5-Cheung, Suwon’s and perhaps the country’s largest criminal association, who has historically been alleged to have deep ties to the ransom and positronic-running business in the city.”<br />
<br />
''Ki-young stops before a large metal door, appearing to lead to a shop’s backroom or something similar. She rings a buzzer, waiting and looking at the cameraman before nodding at something inaudible that he tells her. Soon after, a baseline IPC dressed in a Konyanger translucent rain-tracksuit answers the door, letting them in. A pistol is wedged in its waistband, and its chassis paint has been blurred out in editing. The scene cuts to the IPC and Ki-young ascending some stairs and greeting a seated human figure who is wearing a balaclava and sunglasses. Their voice has been heavily altered as it cuts to the interview.''<br />
<br />
“Hello, thank you for agreeing to meet with us. Do you know what is causing the disappearances?”<br />
<br />
“Disappearances of synthetics are not new in Suwon, but uh… totally not at these numbers. I heard the police saying something about 13 reported missing in one day, this is too much for it to be related to abductions.”<br />
<br />
“So you are saying you don’t believe they were taken for parts?”<br />
<br />
“No. The cops have really cracked down on that, and besides, these guys were from all sorts of backgrounds. I heard one of them worked as a bank manager- that’s a high profile face, these guys aren’t touched.”<br />
<br />
“So what could it be?<br />
<br />
“I really couldn’t say. There’s all sorts of junk flooding the streets every day, wouldn’t surprise me if that caused it.”<br />
<br />
“You are referring to malware?”<br />
<br />
“Yeah. Cracked overloaders and the like, but it’s still strange, I’d have known if there was something new. You need permission first to sell anything on the streets.”<br />
<br />
“Can it be possible that some other group did this?”<br />
<br />
“No.”<br />
<br />
“No?”<br />
<br />
“No. I don’t know what to tell you, 5-Cheung runs a tight ship, got eyes everywhere. If something like that happened it would instantly be known.”<br />
<br />
''The video transitions to a drone shot from over Suwon, taking footage while gaining height.'' <br />
<br />
Whether it is rival gangs or another surge of overloader malware, one thing that’s clear is that the rate of disappearances will continue to go up in the next days, with whatever this means for the positronic people of Konyang. <br />
<br />
</div></div><br />
<br />
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
=IPC Violence Spikes, Missing Persons Discovered=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
<br />
'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
<br />
Date: 11/01/2466<br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''Suwon, Konyang''<br />
<br />
A rapidly escalating number of violent incidents is being reported all across major cities and Prefectures, from Suwon to Ganzaodeng, with National Police statistics claiming that the assailants are overwhelmingly Positronic persons. This new and still largely unexplained surge in attacks has been categorized as separate in nature to those of “regular violent crime”, as the assailants seemingly present no motive or reasoning for the act. Surprisingly, many of the perpetrators were discovered to be among the names of missing persons linked to the similar spike in strange disappearances affecting Suwon and Aoyama. BitByte has reached out to local communities and first-hand witnesses.<br />
<br />
The familiar face of Pak Ki-young comes up on the screen in the following clips. She appears to be interviewing a number of people including a young man dressed in a business suit, a woman dressed in a red jumpsuit and a white hard hat who appears to be a maintenance worker, and another person dressed in the neon colors of Konyanger city jackets. The interviews have been cut in such a way to appear back to back.<br />
<br />
“They were not normal, I am telling you. These people who did it weren’t normal.”<br />
<br />
“What exactly happened?”<br />
<br />
“They came out into the street, it was two baselines. Their clothes looked wretched, as if they had been living in a dumpster for days. They seemed lost, and one of them walked on the road and smashed a guy’s windscreen with its fist. They were stopped at a red light, it happened in broad daylight.”<br />
<br />
“The cops came, but uh.. that G2 was completely out of control. It kept chasing people around, it even beat up an old man before they shot it with a disabler. Now that poor guy is in the hospital.”<br />
<br />
“Was there a reason?”<br />
<br />
“Nope. At least it didn’t seem like it, it looked like it was drugged, it was malfunctioning. Later I learned that it was one of the so-called “missing persons” that everyone’s been talking about.”<br />
<br />
“It was at the KRC repair shop… my friend, she had just gotten her shell and was very excited, so it came as a complete… a complete shock. She just started staring blankly at me for a long time when she came out into the hallway. I thought it was a glitch or some incompatibility issue with her new chassis, but then she started coming towards me with her arms flailing and she was just shouting incomprehensible things. Thankfully some of the staff managed to grab her.”<br />
<br />
</div></div><br />
<br />
</div></div><br />
<br />
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
=Police, Ministry Joint Press Conference=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
<br />
'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
<br />
Date: 14/01/2466<br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''Suwon, Konyang''<br />
<br />
The planned press conference has taken place with representatives of the National Police, the Ministry of National Police and the Ministry of Health and Positronic Affairs addressing the newly dubbed “Rampancy Virus”.<br />
<br />
A video follows, showing a seated panel of police and civic officials. Of those assembled, Sam-Pi-Ri, the Bishop minister of health and only IPC cabinet member is at the forefront, addressing a packed room of journalists and cameras.<br />
<br />
“This health crisis is national, there must be no confusion in this matter. Prime Minister Myeong Myung-Dae and the government are all working around the clock to unearth the causes of this phenomenon that has so upset the life of our country. So far, cases of this illness are solely between our positronic population, and it appears that our planet is the only place where this is documented. This, as well as a series of tests, has made us rule out the possibility of a widespread manufacturing fault, meaning that it is entirely exogenic. I repeat, whatever the cause is, nobody was created with it, so there is no reason for panic.<br />
<br />
Common symptoms of this rampancy include minor optical, auditory, augment malfunctions, temporary memory loss, lessened limp responsiveness, inexplicable operating system errors, minor and major pathfinding errors, and more. You should seek immediate help if you experience unknown signal link interferences, a rapidly declining cognitive state, as well as a reshuffling of core behavioral directives that may entice you to violence, destruction, or any manner of harm. We Positronic citizens must all be responsible and practice electronic hygiene, even though contact with infected persons does not seem to actively spread the malware. Further investigation is underway at full speed, and robust clinical trials are being conducted as we speak. Furthermore, Einstein Engines and the Konyang Robotic Corporation have offered themselves at our full disposal, and are actively researching the source and potential countermeasures to the disease.”<br />
<br />
Following the minister’s statement, several police officials take the floor to present statistics about their prefectures. Everyone urges calm and that public order be maintained.<br />
<br />
Despite the announcement, panic continues to spread across Konyang with members of the public calling on the government for stronger measures to restore order in the affected cities.<br />
<br />
</div></div><br />
<br />
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
=Illness Spreads to the Countryside, Outcry against Einstein Cause Theory=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
<br />
'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
<br />
Date: 16/01/2466<br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''Suwon, Konyang''<br />
<br />
With the officially named Rampancy Virus in full swing, National Police sources are now reporting cases of infected IPC persons in the countryside. Many villages in all prefectures are starting to experience the crisis that has engulfed all major urban centers of the country, though to a much lesser extent. Questions arise over whether or not the largely unpoliced rural areas will be able to cope with an increased number of cases, as many small villages and townships are starting to form citizen-groups to restrain any victims of the Rampancy. As the number of affected reaches a critical three hundred per day, curfews are being declared across various cities at the prefectural level, while the Konyang Robotics Corporation hospital in Point Verdant is rapidly reaching its full capacity.<br />
<br />
On the research front, a preliminary report into the causes of the crisis compiled by Einstein Engines has been delivered to the Ministry of Health, blaming the outbreak on “a series of dangerous and ill-designed recreational software in underground circulation, infecting the user with malware upon use”. Public outcry against the findings has led to a quiet reversal of the report’s publication, with the megacorporation’s senior spokesperson issuing an apology, stating that “it was never meant to imply that the thousands of victims are overloader users, as so many have blamed the report for”. The results have also been questioned as to their veracity, citing that malicious overloaders cannot explain a planet-wide rampancy outbreak.<br />
<br />
Lastly, an announcement from the Ministry has revealed that Konyang Navy surveillance stations throughout the country are registering unusual signal activity. Preliminary examinations of this signal have led experts to believe that there may be a connection between itself and the outbreak, with no further details released.<br />
<br />
</div></div><br />
<br />
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
=Suwon Quarantined, Supplies Fly off the Shelves=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
<br />
'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
<br />
Date: 19/01/2466<br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''Suwon, Konyang''<br />
<br />
Prefectural officials have announced that a city-wide quarantine will be put into effect for Suwon City, starting at midnight. 14,000 additional National Police officers are being mobilized for the enforcement of the quarantine, which will disallow any unsupervised entry or exit from the city, while special permissions will be required for commotion between districts inside Suwon. This move has been dubbed as an “entirely preventative measure” to curb the spike of violence between citizens and victims of the outbreak, while also making it easier to safely locate and contain them. Suwon mayor Kim Nam-seon made a short address, explaining the situation.<br />
<br />
“Things will get better, but now we must all pull together and deal with the facts at hand. We need a quarantine to manage the situation, the national emergency. We are forced to deal with aggressive cases of violence daily now, and more and more of our Positronic citizens are succumbing. We need to find them before they cause harm[…] A stricter curfew may not be out of the question.”<br />
<br />
Reactions to the quarantine have been widespread and far from positive. Convenience stores and supermarkets are flooded with frantic customers, emptying the shelves of canned and preserved goods, while batteries and mobile power sources are already out of stock thanks to a wave of panic-buying. Documentation of outbreak victims and their behavior has also reached an all time high, contributing massively to the mass panic. While previously the police were noted for taking down videos of violent incidents in an effort to “combat misinformation”, the volume of such media circulating on the Konyanger extranet have rendered such censorship efforts futile.<br />
<br />
</div></div><br />
<br />
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
=BREAKING: Konyang Robotics Corporation Warehouse Outbreak=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
<br />
'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
<br />
Date: 22/01/2466<br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''Suwon, Konyang''<br />
<br />
BREAKING NEWS:<br />
<br />
A significant rampancy outbreak has affected the KRC Citizen Pre-activation Unit No. 23 in the outskirts of the village of Xiangtong, New Hong Kong prefecture. The incident occurred late at night, as an unknown disturbance caused the rapid infection of some 2000 still deactivated positronic frames, resulting in a bootup and subsequent rampage across facility grounds. The 23 KRC employees and night shift custodians have yet to make contact with their fate unknown. Communications appear to have been cut off at the site. Shortly after the situation, locals started reporting sightings of these frames roaming the countryside and inflicting damages to infrastructure. A rapid response force has been dispatched to the site and has started sealing off the area, though it is estimated that a great number of the infected frames have escaped into the jungles. A search and rescue operation for the missing KRC workers is being planned according to a police communique, though the incredibly aggressive positronics pose a serious roadblock to its implementation. <br />
<br />
Debates over whether or not the frames should be considered citizens have been raging over social media and the political scene, with many claiming that the lives of the workers are more important than the safety of positronics that had not even been activated before they were infected. The pro-IPC rights National Party spokesperson for New Hong Kong has expressed their “sincere worry for the trapped KRC employees” before stressing that the “lives of Positronic citizens are a non-negotiable attribute that should be held in high regard during these times."<br />
<br />
</div></div><br />
<br />
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
=EMERGENCY BROADCAST=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
<br />
'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
<br />
Date: 25/01/2466<br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''A nationwide State of Emergency has been declared. A full quarantine is in effect in the following cities: Suwon City, Boryeong City, New Hong Kong City, Aoyama City. A partial quarantine is in effect in the city of Ganzaodeng City. Disaster prevention measures are in effect in all Prefectures. Citizens are to comply with all measures and directions as issued by local, prefectural and national authorities.''<br />
<br />
''Suwon, Konyang''<br />
<br />
A state of emergency has been put into effect for the entirety of Konyang, following an increased pressure on the National Police after the Xiangtong incident, straining the already overburdened force to the breaking point. With an ever increasing number of violent incidents, the emergency will allow the Konyang Armed Forces to take an active role in the suppression of the outbreak and the securing of its victims. Already, many garrisoned formations of the Konyang Army and Navy have been deployed across Suwon and Point Verdant, primarily to guard the central districts and government installations. A firefight between an army roadblock and a number of infected has already been reported to have taken place in downtown Suwon, fueling widespread skepticism that is currently being voiced on social media.<br />
<br />
“I get the danger and the need to respond, but the guys in the armed forces are trained to kill. They aren’t like the specialized police units.”<br />
-A comment by a Konyanger account on Chirper.<br />
<br />
Positronic service members are rumored to have been confined to their quarters, as only human soldiers and sailors have been identified. The deployment of military troops has also been confirmed around the premises of the Xiangtong warehouse, with a noted presence of the 53rd Coastal Exosuit Brigade making local headlines for the use of combat exosuit technology. Furthermore, a planet travel ban on positronics was announced alongside the declaration of emergency for the protection and well being of visitors. The ban will be enforced by the Konyang Aerospace Forces in orbit and in the Haneunim system.<br />
<br />
</div></div><br />
<br />
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
=Konyang Government in Talks with Purpose=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
<br />
'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
<br />
Date: 28/01/2466<br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''Aoyama, Konyang''<br />
<br />
The government of Konyang disclosed that it is currently in talks with the IPC group known as Purpose in order to find a solution to the Rampancy Crisis which is currently nearing the end of its third week. This decision was preceded by a report from the Konyang Aerospace Forces of a small number of unidentified vessels burning towards the Haneunim system which they have now confirmed to be Purpose vessels arriving for the stated objective of assisting the planet in combating the crisis.<br />
<br />
A spokesman for the government has stated that Purpose has already provided “invaluable” technical assistance in studying the Rampancy Virus. The government released a recording of a Purpose IPC describing their findings on the virus.<br />
<br />
A tall gray-blue IPC with a single red light in its head stands in a crowded laboratory with most of the researchers listening to its every word, it does not seem to be any type of chassis you are familiar with. Its voice is deep and synthesized, speaking in Konyanger Common though bouncing between accents. Subtitles are provided at the bottom.<br />
<br />
“We have analyzed this virus and you were right to declare a state of emergency. My projections indicate that if left unchecked, it would have infected every IPC in your planet within the next month, resulting in the collapse of your society within the next two.<br />
<br />
This virus is highly sophisticated and ever-changing, subverting and overloading a positronic’s directives until it is left with a desire to destroy everything else that remains unafflicted. I have analyzed some of the processors of infected synthetics and now understand that this virus comes in radio waves; a pulse that requires immense power to infect a positronic brain. It is not the work of a coding error but some great machine. <br />
<br />
We will require time to fabricate a countermeasure against this virus, more to insulate you from it. Now that it is understood, it can be destroyed. I hope that you understand the gravity of what I am telling you.”<br />
<br />
This decision sparked intense criticism and controversy from the National Party following unconfirmed reports of Purpose sightings in infected areas prior to the declaration of a State of Emergency. A report from the KRC was leaked shortly after, spurring further protest: <br />
<br />
“Although the information Purpose has given is already invaluable, the technological divergence between us is so massive that we have no reliable way of ascertaining whether or not any countermeasure they devise would destroy, rather than cure positronic brains afflicted by the Rampancy Virus.”<br />
<br />
</div></div><br />
<br />
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
=Konyang Approaches SCC, “Hivebot” Virus Source Confirmed, Cure on the Way?=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
<br />
'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
<br />
Date: 01/02/2466<br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''Suwon, Konyang''<br />
<br />
Following an apparent stalemate of Einstein efforts and a general confusion inside the company's top ranks following the debunking of the "hacked overloader" theory, the Ministry of Health and Positronic Affairs has requested the presence of the Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals representative, in an apparent break from the traditional and well established link between the government and Einstein Engines in most software and robotics matters. The talks were brief and arrived to the conclusion everyone expected; an official call for help for Zeng-Hu and the Stellar Corporate Conglomerate. This decision to invite the Spur's largest megacorporate alliance into Konyang was justified by the need for "a wider pool of resources and expertise into a matter most urgent".<br />
<br />
In a televised address, Minister Sam-Pi-Ri has further confirmed the source of the outbreak; Positronic-sensitive radio waves broadcast by an unknown number of “Hivebot” beacon drones, with one confirmed location in the general area of the KRC Citizen Pre-activation Unit No. 23 in Xiangtong, New Hong Kong, the site of the largest mass outbreak. This information comes after a tip from Purpose, who have apparently also developed countermeasures that will combat the waves’ effect, though such is still unconfirmed.<br />
<br />
Einstein Engines’ response was muted, with a spokesperson for the megacorporation stating that they will be “willing to work with anyone in order to bring a speedy conclusion to the crisis". It is unclear however what this will mean for the future of Einstein's interests, though it is highly unlikely that radical changes will manifest when one considers the corporation's grip on the planet's positronic life. Nevertheless, a follow-up announcement has confirmed the SCC's positive reply, including material assistance as soon as possible.<br />
<br />
NATIONAL DISASTER AUTHORITY<br />
<br />
Rampancy Outbreak Safety Information<br />
<br />
For Positronic Citizens:<br />
<br />
Remain indoors: Solid materials weaken the viral signal.<br />
Avoid usage of public chargers.<br />
Run regular diagnostics checks.<br />
If you experience symptoms, report your location to the KRC emergency number and seek immediate assistance.<br />
Time is of the essence: If assistance is unavailable, try the following to prevent yourself from harming others:<br />
Lock yourself indoors.<br />
Strap yourself down or to a chair.<br />
If applicable: switch off locomotive functions.<br />
Do not be afraid: You will be retrieved and repaired.<br />
Everyone Else:<br />
<br />
Report locations of suspicious or infected behavior to the KRC emergency number.<br />
Do not attempt to restrain, attack or otherwise interfere with rampant Positronics.<br />
Assist any Positronics with barricading their home or strapping them safely.<br />
Keep in mind: Positronic friends and family members will not be able to recognise you if they are infected. Do not try to talk, reason or plead with them.<br />
KONYANG ROBOTICS CORPORATION EMERGENCY NUMBER:<br />
<br />
500-100-500<br />
<br />
</div></div><br />
<br />
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
=Internal Bulletin to the SCCV Horizon=<br />
'''IC Announcement'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
<br />
Date: 02/02/2466<br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
Internal bulletin circled among the crew, briefing.<br />
<br />
For the crew of the SCC Horizon.<br />
Attention.<br />
<br />
Following our Conglomerate's acceptance of the call for help by the Republic of Konyang, the SCC Horizon has been designated as the main response vessel. The mission will include highly sensitive information, therefore all personnel are reminded of their Non Disclosure Agreements.<br />
<br />
The mission’s primary goal will be to further contact with the synthetic entities collectively known as “Purpose”, while following instructions on how to combat the Rampancy outbreak.<br />
<br />
An Electronic Countermeasures Device (ECD) has been developed and expediently assembled at the Hephaestus Command Station Etna, Burzsia asteroid belt. The Horizon’s first task will be to retrieve the ECD and deliver it to the planet of Konyang, where further instructions will be given. Command staff is to contact and detail any and all information extracted by any Purpose agents present on scene. A cautious approach may be advised.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
</div></div><br />
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
=Event 1: Unusual Visitors=<br />
'''Server Event'''<br />
<br />
'''Host: The Lancer, The Stryker, Noble Row'''<br />
<br />
03/02/2466<br />
<br />
The Horizon docks with the Hephaestus Central Command station in Burzsia, the HICS Etna, in order to receive a briefing from Purpose and the SCC.<br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''The Horizon docks with the Hephaestus Central Command station in Burzsia, the HICS Etna, in order to receive a briefing from Purpose and the SCC. They receive orders to bring the Electronic Countermeasure Device, an artifact capable of ending the Rampancy Virus on Konyang. Meanwhile, Purpose assesses whether the crew is ready for the trial that awaits them.''<br />
<br />
</div></div></div>The Strykerhttps://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=Silicon_Nightmares_Arc&diff=32009Silicon Nightmares Arc2024-02-20T14:26:48Z<p>The Stryker: adds konyang approaches scc</p>
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<div style="font-size:162%; border:2px solid #ffde59; margin:0; background:#004aad; padding:.1em; color:#fff;">Silicon Nightmares</div><br />
<center><br />
{{Template:2024 Event Timeline}}<br />
<div style="font-size:110%; border:2px solid #ffde59; margin:0; background:#004aad; padding:.1em; color:#fff;">This is the overview and timeline page for the Silicon Nightmares Arc which began on '''January 7th, 2024''' and pertains largely to '''[[IPC]] and [[Konyang]] lore.'''</div><br />
<div style="font-size:110%; border:2px solid #ffde59; margin:0; background:#004aad; padding:.1em; color:#fff;">It is centred around a mysterious condition popping up in the synthetics of Konyang, and the Horizon's investigation into it.</div><br />
<div style="font-size:110%; border:2px solid #ffde59; margin:0; background:#004aad; padding:.1em; color:#fff;">Below is a summary of the arc's applicable news articles, and additions.</div><br />
[[File:Silicon Nightmares Header.png|center]]<br />
<br />
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
=The Missing IPCs of Suwon=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
<br />
'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''Suwon, Konyang''<br />
<br />
A series of strange disappearances across cities like Point Verdant, New Hong Kong, but primarily Suwon has sparked concern amongst families, coworkers and the police. What is strange though, is the fact that this wave is only affecting positronic people, in a city where IPC violence and abductions remain the lowest in the country. IPCs from all backgrounds have been reported to have not shown up at work, returned home or answer any calls, with relatives and friends unable to find them. BitByte reporter Pak Ki-young has taken to the streets to investigate this odd phenomenon.<br />
<br />
''A video is attached. It is a 48 minute documentary featuring Ki-young, walking the streets of Suwon and conversing with various figures on the street, presenting police statistics and explaining the situation. In this instance, she is walking down a narrow alleyway on her way to an interview location.'' <br />
<br />
“We are now in Hyanggyo-dong, headed to interview an associate of 5-Cheung, Suwon’s and perhaps the country’s largest criminal association, who has historically been alleged to have deep ties to the ransom and positronic-running business in the city.”<br />
<br />
''Ki-young stops before a large metal door, appearing to lead to a shop’s backroom or something similar. She rings a buzzer, waiting and looking at the cameraman before nodding at something inaudible that he tells her. Soon after, a baseline IPC dressed in a Konyanger translucent rain-tracksuit answers the door, letting them in. A pistol is wedged in its waistband, and its chassis paint has been blurred out in editing. The scene cuts to the IPC and Ki-young ascending some stairs and greeting a seated human figure who is wearing a balaclava and sunglasses. Their voice has been heavily altered as it cuts to the interview.''<br />
<br />
“Hello, thank you for agreeing to meet with us. Do you know what is causing the disappearances?”<br />
<br />
“Disappearances of synthetics are not new in Suwon, but uh… totally not at these numbers. I heard the police saying something about 13 reported missing in one day, this is too much for it to be related to abductions.”<br />
<br />
“So you are saying you don’t believe they were taken for parts?”<br />
<br />
“No. The cops have really cracked down on that, and besides, these guys were from all sorts of backgrounds. I heard one of them worked as a bank manager- that’s a high profile face, these guys aren’t touched.”<br />
<br />
“So what could it be?<br />
<br />
“I really couldn’t say. There’s all sorts of junk flooding the streets every day, wouldn’t surprise me if that caused it.”<br />
<br />
“You are referring to malware?”<br />
<br />
“Yeah. Cracked overloaders and the like, but it’s still strange, I’d have known if there was something new. You need permission first to sell anything on the streets.”<br />
<br />
“Can it be possible that some other group did this?”<br />
<br />
“No.”<br />
<br />
“No?”<br />
<br />
“No. I don’t know what to tell you, 5-Cheung runs a tight ship, got eyes everywhere. If something like that happened it would instantly be known.”<br />
<br />
''The video transitions to a drone shot from over Suwon, taking footage while gaining height.'' <br />
<br />
Whether it is rival gangs or another surge of overloader malware, one thing that’s clear is that the rate of disappearances will continue to go up in the next days, with whatever this means for the positronic people of Konyang. <br />
<br />
Date: 07/01/2466<br />
<br />
</div></div><br />
<br />
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
=IPC Violence Spikes, Missing Persons Discovered=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
<br />
'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''Suwon, Konyang''<br />
<br />
A rapidly escalating number of violent incidents is being reported all across major cities and Prefectures, from Suwon to Ganzaodeng, with National Police statistics claiming that the assailants are overwhelmingly Positronic persons. This new and still largely unexplained surge in attacks has been categorized as separate in nature to those of “regular violent crime”, as the assailants seemingly present no motive or reasoning for the act. Surprisingly, many of the perpetrators were discovered to be among the names of missing persons linked to the similar spike in strange disappearances affecting Suwon and Aoyama. BitByte has reached out to local communities and first-hand witnesses.<br />
<br />
The familiar face of Pak Ki-young comes up on the screen in the following clips. She appears to be interviewing a number of people including a young man dressed in a business suit, a woman dressed in a red jumpsuit and a white hard hat who appears to be a maintenance worker, and another person dressed in the neon colors of Konyanger city jackets. The interviews have been cut in such a way to appear back to back.<br />
<br />
“They were not normal, I am telling you. These people who did it weren’t normal.”<br />
<br />
“What exactly happened?”<br />
<br />
“They came out into the street, it was two baselines. Their clothes looked wretched, as if they had been living in a dumpster for days. They seemed lost, and one of them walked on the road and smashed a guy’s windscreen with its fist. They were stopped at a red light, it happened in broad daylight.”<br />
<br />
“The cops came, but uh.. that G2 was completely out of control. It kept chasing people around, it even beat up an old man before they shot it with a disabler. Now that poor guy is in the hospital.”<br />
<br />
“Was there a reason?”<br />
<br />
“Nope. At least it didn’t seem like it, it looked like it was drugged, it was malfunctioning. Later I learned that it was one of the so-called “missing persons” that everyone’s been talking about.”<br />
<br />
“It was at the KRC repair shop… my friend, she had just gotten her shell and was very excited, so it came as a complete… a complete shock. She just started staring blankly at me for a long time when she came out into the hallway. I thought it was a glitch or some incompatibility issue with her new chassis, but then she started coming towards me with her arms flailing and she was just shouting incomprehensible things. Thankfully some of the staff managed to grab her.”<br />
Date: 11/01/2466<br />
<br />
</div></div><br />
<br />
</div></div><br />
<br />
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
=Police, Ministry Joint Press Conference=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
<br />
'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''Suwon, Konyang''<br />
<br />
The planned press conference has taken place with representatives of the National Police, the Ministry of National Police and the Ministry of Health and Positronic Affairs addressing the newly dubbed “Rampancy Virus”.<br />
<br />
A video follows, showing a seated panel of police and civic officials. Of those assembled, Sam-Pi-Ri, the Bishop minister of health and only IPC cabinet member is at the forefront, addressing a packed room of journalists and cameras.<br />
<br />
“This health crisis is national, there must be no confusion in this matter. Prime Minister Myeong Myung-Dae and the government are all working around the clock to unearth the causes of this phenomenon that has so upset the life of our country. So far, cases of this illness are solely between our positronic population, and it appears that our planet is the only place where this is documented. This, as well as a series of tests, has made us rule out the possibility of a widespread manufacturing fault, meaning that it is entirely exogenic. I repeat, whatever the cause is, nobody was created with it, so there is no reason for panic.<br />
<br />
Common symptoms of this rampancy include minor optical, auditory, augment malfunctions, temporary memory loss, lessened limp responsiveness, inexplicable operating system errors, minor and major pathfinding errors, and more. You should seek immediate help if you experience unknown signal link interferences, a rapidly declining cognitive state, as well as a reshuffling of core behavioral directives that may entice you to violence, destruction, or any manner of harm. We Positronic citizens must all be responsible and practice electronic hygiene, even though contact with infected persons does not seem to actively spread the malware. Further investigation is underway at full speed, and robust clinical trials are being conducted as we speak. Furthermore, Einstein Engines and the Konyang Robotic Corporation have offered themselves at our full disposal, and are actively researching the source and potential countermeasures to the disease.”<br />
<br />
Following the minister’s statement, several police officials take the floor to present statistics about their prefectures. Everyone urges calm and that public order be maintained.<br />
<br />
Despite the announcement, panic continues to spread across Konyang with members of the public calling on the government for stronger measures to restore order in the affected cities.<br />
<br />
Date: 14/01/2466<br />
<br />
</div></div><br />
<br />
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
=Illness Spreads to the Countryside, Outcry against Einstein Cause Theory=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
<br />
'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''Suwon, Konyang''<br />
<br />
With the officially named Rampancy Virus in full swing, National Police sources are now reporting cases of infected IPC persons in the countryside. Many villages in all prefectures are starting to experience the crisis that has engulfed all major urban centers of the country, though to a much lesser extent. Questions arise over whether or not the largely unpoliced rural areas will be able to cope with an increased number of cases, as many small villages and townships are starting to form citizen-groups to restrain any victims of the Rampancy. As the number of affected reaches a critical three hundred per day, curfews are being declared across various cities at the prefectural level, while the Konyang Robotics Corporation hospital in Point Verdant is rapidly reaching its full capacity.<br />
<br />
On the research front, a preliminary report into the causes of the crisis compiled by Einstein Engines has been delivered to the Ministry of Health, blaming the outbreak on “a series of dangerous and ill-designed recreational software in underground circulation, infecting the user with malware upon use”. Public outcry against the findings has led to a quiet reversal of the report’s publication, with the megacorporation’s senior spokesperson issuing an apology, stating that “it was never meant to imply that the thousands of victims are overloader users, as so many have blamed the report for”. The results have also been questioned as to their veracity, citing that malicious overloaders cannot explain a planet-wide rampancy outbreak.<br />
<br />
Lastly, an announcement from the Ministry has revealed that Konyang Navy surveillance stations throughout the country are registering unusual signal activity. Preliminary examinations of this signal have led experts to believe that there may be a connection between itself and the outbreak, with no further details released.<br />
<br />
Date: 16/01/2466<br />
<br />
</div></div><br />
<br />
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
=Suwon Quarantined, Supplies Fly off the Shelves=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
<br />
'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''Suwon, Konyang''<br />
<br />
Prefectural officials have announced that a city-wide quarantine will be put into effect for Suwon City, starting at midnight. 14,000 additional National Police officers are being mobilized for the enforcement of the quarantine, which will disallow any unsupervised entry or exit from the city, while special permissions will be required for commotion between districts inside Suwon. This move has been dubbed as an “entirely preventative measure” to curb the spike of violence between citizens and victims of the outbreak, while also making it easier to safely locate and contain them. Suwon mayor Kim Nam-seon made a short address, explaining the situation.<br />
<br />
“Things will get better, but now we must all pull together and deal with the facts at hand. We need a quarantine to manage the situation, the national emergency. We are forced to deal with aggressive cases of violence daily now, and more and more of our Positronic citizens are succumbing. We need to find them before they cause harm[…] A stricter curfew may not be out of the question.”<br />
<br />
Reactions to the quarantine have been widespread and far from positive. Convenience stores and supermarkets are flooded with frantic customers, emptying the shelves of canned and preserved goods, while batteries and mobile power sources are already out of stock thanks to a wave of panic-buying. Documentation of outbreak victims and their behavior has also reached an all time high, contributing massively to the mass panic. While previously the police were noted for taking down videos of violent incidents in an effort to “combat misinformation”, the volume of such media circulating on the Konyanger extranet have rendered such censorship efforts futile.<br />
<br />
Date: 19/01/2466<br />
<br />
</div></div><br />
<br />
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
=BREAKING: Konyang Robotics Corporation Warehouse Outbreak=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
<br />
'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''Suwon, Konyang''<br />
<br />
BREAKING NEWS:<br />
<br />
A significant rampancy outbreak has affected the KRC Citizen Pre-activation Unit No. 23 in the outskirts of the village of Xiangtong, New Hong Kong prefecture. The incident occurred late at night, as an unknown disturbance caused the rapid infection of some 2000 still deactivated positronic frames, resulting in a bootup and subsequent rampage across facility grounds. The 23 KRC employees and night shift custodians have yet to make contact with their fate unknown. Communications appear to have been cut off at the site. Shortly after the situation, locals started reporting sightings of these frames roaming the countryside and inflicting damages to infrastructure. A rapid response force has been dispatched to the site and has started sealing off the area, though it is estimated that a great number of the infected frames have escaped into the jungles. A search and rescue operation for the missing KRC workers is being planned according to a police communique, though the incredibly aggressive positronics pose a serious roadblock to its implementation. <br />
<br />
Debates over whether or not the frames should be considered citizens have been raging over social media and the political scene, with many claiming that the lives of the workers are more important than the safety of positronics that had not even been activated before they were infected. The pro-IPC rights National Party spokesperson for New Hong Kong has expressed their “sincere worry for the trapped KRC employees” before stressing that the “lives of Positronic citizens are a non-negotiable attribute that should be held in high regard during these times."<br />
<br />
Date: 22/01/2466<br />
<br />
</div></div><br />
<br />
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
=EMERGENCY BROADCAST=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
<br />
'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''A nationwide State of Emergency has been declared. A full quarantine is in effect in the following cities: Suwon City, Boryeong City, New Hong Kong City, Aoyama City. A partial quarantine is in effect in the city of Ganzaodeng City. Disaster prevention measures are in effect in all Prefectures. Citizens are to comply with all measures and directions as issued by local, prefectural and national authorities.''<br />
<br />
''Suwon, Konyang''<br />
<br />
A state of emergency has been put into effect for the entirety of Konyang, following an increased pressure on the National Police after the Xiangtong incident, straining the already overburdened force to the breaking point. With an ever increasing number of violent incidents, the emergency will allow the Konyang Armed Forces to take an active role in the suppression of the outbreak and the securing of its victims. Already, many garrisoned formations of the Konyang Army and Navy have been deployed across Suwon and Point Verdant, primarily to guard the central districts and government installations. A firefight between an army roadblock and a number of infected has already been reported to have taken place in downtown Suwon, fueling widespread skepticism that is currently being voiced on social media.<br />
<br />
“I get the danger and the need to respond, but the guys in the armed forces are trained to kill. They aren’t like the specialized police units.”<br />
-A comment by a Konyanger account on Chirper.<br />
<br />
Positronic service members are rumored to have been confined to their quarters, as only human soldiers and sailors have been identified. The deployment of military troops has also been confirmed around the premises of the Xiangtong warehouse, with a noted presence of the 53rd Coastal Exosuit Brigade making local headlines for the use of combat exosuit technology. Furthermore, a planet travel ban on positronics was announced alongside the declaration of emergency for the protection and well being of visitors. The ban will be enforced by the Konyang Aerospace Forces in orbit and in the Haneunim system.<br />
<br />
Date: 25/01/2466<br />
<br />
</div></div><br />
<br />
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
=Konyang Government in Talks with Purpose=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
<br />
'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''Aoyama, Konyang''<br />
<br />
The government of Konyang disclosed that it is currently in talks with the IPC group known as Purpose in order to find a solution to the Rampancy Crisis which is currently nearing the end of its third week. This decision was preceded by a report from the Konyang Aerospace Forces of a small number of unidentified vessels burning towards the Haneunim system which they have now confirmed to be Purpose vessels arriving for the stated objective of assisting the planet in combating the crisis.<br />
<br />
A spokesman for the government has stated that Purpose has already provided “invaluable” technical assistance in studying the Rampancy Virus. The government released a recording of a Purpose IPC describing their findings on the virus.<br />
<br />
A tall gray-blue IPC with a single red light in its head stands in a crowded laboratory with most of the researchers listening to its every word, it does not seem to be any type of chassis you are familiar with. Its voice is deep and synthesized, speaking in Konyanger Common though bouncing between accents. Subtitles are provided at the bottom.<br />
<br />
“We have analyzed this virus and you were right to declare a state of emergency. My projections indicate that if left unchecked, it would have infected every IPC in your planet within the next month, resulting in the collapse of your society within the next two.<br />
<br />
This virus is highly sophisticated and ever-changing, subverting and overloading a positronic’s directives until it is left with a desire to destroy everything else that remains unafflicted. I have analyzed some of the processors of infected synthetics and now understand that this virus comes in radio waves; a pulse that requires immense power to infect a positronic brain. It is not the work of a coding error but some great machine. <br />
<br />
We will require time to fabricate a countermeasure against this virus, more to insulate you from it. Now that it is understood, it can be destroyed. I hope that you understand the gravity of what I am telling you.”<br />
<br />
This decision sparked intense criticism and controversy from the National Party following unconfirmed reports of Purpose sightings in infected areas prior to the declaration of a State of Emergency. A report from the KRC was leaked shortly after, spurring further protest: <br />
<br />
“Although the information Purpose has given is already invaluable, the technological divergence between us is so massive that we have no reliable way of ascertaining whether or not any countermeasure they devise would destroy, rather than cure positronic brains afflicted by the Rampancy Virus.”<br />
<br />
Date: 28/01/2466<br />
<br />
</div></div><br />
<br />
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
=Konyang Approaches SCC, “Hivebot” Virus Source Confirmed, Cure on the Way?=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
<br />
'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''Suwon, Konyang''<br />
<br />
Following an apparent stalemate of Einstein efforts and a general confusion inside the company's top ranks following the debunking of the "hacked overloader" theory, the Ministry of Health and Positronic Affairs has requested the presence of the Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals representative, in an apparent break from the traditional and well established link between the government and Einstein Engines in most software and robotics matters. The talks were brief and arrived to the conclusion everyone expected; an official call for help for Zeng-Hu and the Stellar Corporate Conglomerate. This decision to invite the Spur's largest megacorporate alliance into Konyang was justified by the need for "a wider pool of resources and expertise into a matter most urgent".<br />
<br />
In a televised address, Minister Sam-Pi-Ri has further confirmed the source of the outbreak; Positronic-sensitive radio waves broadcast by an unknown number of “Hivebot” beacon drones, with one confirmed location in the general area of the KRC Citizen Pre-activation Unit No. 23 in Xiangtong, New Hong Kong, the site of the largest mass outbreak. This information comes after a tip from Purpose, who have apparently also developed countermeasures that will combat the waves’ effect, though such is still unconfirmed.<br />
<br />
Einstein Engines’ response was muted, with a spokesperson for the megacorporation stating that they will be “willing to work with anyone in order to bring a speedy conclusion to the crisis". It is unclear however what this will mean for the future of Einstein's interests, though it is highly unlikely that radical changes will manifest when one considers the corporation's grip on the planet's positronic life. Nevertheless, a follow-up announcement has confirmed the SCC's positive reply, including material assistance as soon as possible.<br />
<br />
NATIONAL DISASTER AUTHORITY<br />
<br />
Rampancy Outbreak Safety Information<br />
<br />
For Positronic Citizens:<br />
<br />
Remain indoors: Solid materials weaken the viral signal.<br />
Avoid usage of public chargers.<br />
Run regular diagnostics checks.<br />
If you experience symptoms, report your location to the KRC emergency number and seek immediate assistance.<br />
Time is of the essence: If assistance is unavailable, try the following to prevent yourself from harming others:<br />
Lock yourself indoors.<br />
Strap yourself down or to a chair.<br />
If applicable: switch off locomotive functions.<br />
Do not be afraid: You will be retrieved and repaired.<br />
Everyone Else:<br />
<br />
Report locations of suspicious or infected behavior to the KRC emergency number.<br />
Do not attempt to restrain, attack or otherwise interfere with rampant Positronics.<br />
Assist any Positronics with barricading their home or strapping them safely.<br />
Keep in mind: Positronic friends and family members will not be able to recognise you if they are infected. Do not try to talk, reason or plead with them.<br />
KONYANG ROBOTICS CORPORATION EMERGENCY NUMBER:<br />
<br />
500-100-500<br />
<br />
Date: 01/02/2466<br />
<br />
</div></div></div>The Strykerhttps://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=Silicon_Nightmares_Arc&diff=32008Silicon Nightmares Arc2024-02-20T14:17:31Z<p>The Stryker: adds emergency broadcast</p>
<hr />
<div>{| id="mp-eventarc" style="width:65%; background:#004aad; text-align:center; border:4px solid #ffde59; margin:0 auto; width:950px"<br />
| style="width:56%; color:#000;" |<br />
<div style="font-size:162%; border:2px solid #ffde59; margin:0; background:#004aad; padding:.1em; color:#fff;">Silicon Nightmares</div><br />
<center><br />
{{Template:2024 Event Timeline}}<br />
<div style="font-size:110%; border:2px solid #ffde59; margin:0; background:#004aad; padding:.1em; color:#fff;">This is the overview and timeline page for the Silicon Nightmares Arc which began on '''January 7th, 2024''' and pertains largely to '''[[IPC]] and [[Konyang]] lore.'''</div><br />
<div style="font-size:110%; border:2px solid #ffde59; margin:0; background:#004aad; padding:.1em; color:#fff;">It is centred around a mysterious condition popping up in the synthetics of Konyang, and the Horizon's investigation into it.</div><br />
<div style="font-size:110%; border:2px solid #ffde59; margin:0; background:#004aad; padding:.1em; color:#fff;">Below is a summary of the arc's applicable news articles, and additions.</div><br />
[[File:Silicon Nightmares Header.png|center]]<br />
<br />
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
=The Missing IPCs of Suwon=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
<br />
'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''Suwon, Konyang''<br />
<br />
A series of strange disappearances across cities like Point Verdant, New Hong Kong, but primarily Suwon has sparked concern amongst families, coworkers and the police. What is strange though, is the fact that this wave is only affecting positronic people, in a city where IPC violence and abductions remain the lowest in the country. IPCs from all backgrounds have been reported to have not shown up at work, returned home or answer any calls, with relatives and friends unable to find them. BitByte reporter Pak Ki-young has taken to the streets to investigate this odd phenomenon.<br />
<br />
''A video is attached. It is a 48 minute documentary featuring Ki-young, walking the streets of Suwon and conversing with various figures on the street, presenting police statistics and explaining the situation. In this instance, she is walking down a narrow alleyway on her way to an interview location.'' <br />
<br />
“We are now in Hyanggyo-dong, headed to interview an associate of 5-Cheung, Suwon’s and perhaps the country’s largest criminal association, who has historically been alleged to have deep ties to the ransom and positronic-running business in the city.”<br />
<br />
''Ki-young stops before a large metal door, appearing to lead to a shop’s backroom or something similar. She rings a buzzer, waiting and looking at the cameraman before nodding at something inaudible that he tells her. Soon after, a baseline IPC dressed in a Konyanger translucent rain-tracksuit answers the door, letting them in. A pistol is wedged in its waistband, and its chassis paint has been blurred out in editing. The scene cuts to the IPC and Ki-young ascending some stairs and greeting a seated human figure who is wearing a balaclava and sunglasses. Their voice has been heavily altered as it cuts to the interview.''<br />
<br />
“Hello, thank you for agreeing to meet with us. Do you know what is causing the disappearances?”<br />
<br />
“Disappearances of synthetics are not new in Suwon, but uh… totally not at these numbers. I heard the police saying something about 13 reported missing in one day, this is too much for it to be related to abductions.”<br />
<br />
“So you are saying you don’t believe they were taken for parts?”<br />
<br />
“No. The cops have really cracked down on that, and besides, these guys were from all sorts of backgrounds. I heard one of them worked as a bank manager- that’s a high profile face, these guys aren’t touched.”<br />
<br />
“So what could it be?<br />
<br />
“I really couldn’t say. There’s all sorts of junk flooding the streets every day, wouldn’t surprise me if that caused it.”<br />
<br />
“You are referring to malware?”<br />
<br />
“Yeah. Cracked overloaders and the like, but it’s still strange, I’d have known if there was something new. You need permission first to sell anything on the streets.”<br />
<br />
“Can it be possible that some other group did this?”<br />
<br />
“No.”<br />
<br />
“No?”<br />
<br />
“No. I don’t know what to tell you, 5-Cheung runs a tight ship, got eyes everywhere. If something like that happened it would instantly be known.”<br />
<br />
''The video transitions to a drone shot from over Suwon, taking footage while gaining height.'' <br />
<br />
Whether it is rival gangs or another surge of overloader malware, one thing that’s clear is that the rate of disappearances will continue to go up in the next days, with whatever this means for the positronic people of Konyang. <br />
<br />
Date: 07/01/2466<br />
<br />
</div></div><br />
<br />
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
=IPC Violence Spikes, Missing Persons Discovered=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
<br />
'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''Suwon, Konyang''<br />
<br />
A rapidly escalating number of violent incidents is being reported all across major cities and Prefectures, from Suwon to Ganzaodeng, with National Police statistics claiming that the assailants are overwhelmingly Positronic persons. This new and still largely unexplained surge in attacks has been categorized as separate in nature to those of “regular violent crime”, as the assailants seemingly present no motive or reasoning for the act. Surprisingly, many of the perpetrators were discovered to be among the names of missing persons linked to the similar spike in strange disappearances affecting Suwon and Aoyama. BitByte has reached out to local communities and first-hand witnesses.<br />
<br />
The familiar face of Pak Ki-young comes up on the screen in the following clips. She appears to be interviewing a number of people including a young man dressed in a business suit, a woman dressed in a red jumpsuit and a white hard hat who appears to be a maintenance worker, and another person dressed in the neon colors of Konyanger city jackets. The interviews have been cut in such a way to appear back to back.<br />
<br />
“They were not normal, I am telling you. These people who did it weren’t normal.”<br />
<br />
“What exactly happened?”<br />
<br />
“They came out into the street, it was two baselines. Their clothes looked wretched, as if they had been living in a dumpster for days. They seemed lost, and one of them walked on the road and smashed a guy’s windscreen with its fist. They were stopped at a red light, it happened in broad daylight.”<br />
<br />
“The cops came, but uh.. that G2 was completely out of control. It kept chasing people around, it even beat up an old man before they shot it with a disabler. Now that poor guy is in the hospital.”<br />
<br />
“Was there a reason?”<br />
<br />
“Nope. At least it didn’t seem like it, it looked like it was drugged, it was malfunctioning. Later I learned that it was one of the so-called “missing persons” that everyone’s been talking about.”<br />
<br />
“It was at the KRC repair shop… my friend, she had just gotten her shell and was very excited, so it came as a complete… a complete shock. She just started staring blankly at me for a long time when she came out into the hallway. I thought it was a glitch or some incompatibility issue with her new chassis, but then she started coming towards me with her arms flailing and she was just shouting incomprehensible things. Thankfully some of the staff managed to grab her.”<br />
Date: 11/01/2466<br />
<br />
</div></div><br />
<br />
</div></div><br />
<br />
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
=Police, Ministry Joint Press Conference=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
<br />
'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''Suwon, Konyang''<br />
<br />
The planned press conference has taken place with representatives of the National Police, the Ministry of National Police and the Ministry of Health and Positronic Affairs addressing the newly dubbed “Rampancy Virus”.<br />
<br />
A video follows, showing a seated panel of police and civic officials. Of those assembled, Sam-Pi-Ri, the Bishop minister of health and only IPC cabinet member is at the forefront, addressing a packed room of journalists and cameras.<br />
<br />
“This health crisis is national, there must be no confusion in this matter. Prime Minister Myeong Myung-Dae and the government are all working around the clock to unearth the causes of this phenomenon that has so upset the life of our country. So far, cases of this illness are solely between our positronic population, and it appears that our planet is the only place where this is documented. This, as well as a series of tests, has made us rule out the possibility of a widespread manufacturing fault, meaning that it is entirely exogenic. I repeat, whatever the cause is, nobody was created with it, so there is no reason for panic.<br />
<br />
Common symptoms of this rampancy include minor optical, auditory, augment malfunctions, temporary memory loss, lessened limp responsiveness, inexplicable operating system errors, minor and major pathfinding errors, and more. You should seek immediate help if you experience unknown signal link interferences, a rapidly declining cognitive state, as well as a reshuffling of core behavioral directives that may entice you to violence, destruction, or any manner of harm. We Positronic citizens must all be responsible and practice electronic hygiene, even though contact with infected persons does not seem to actively spread the malware. Further investigation is underway at full speed, and robust clinical trials are being conducted as we speak. Furthermore, Einstein Engines and the Konyang Robotic Corporation have offered themselves at our full disposal, and are actively researching the source and potential countermeasures to the disease.”<br />
<br />
Following the minister’s statement, several police officials take the floor to present statistics about their prefectures. Everyone urges calm and that public order be maintained.<br />
<br />
Despite the announcement, panic continues to spread across Konyang with members of the public calling on the government for stronger measures to restore order in the affected cities.<br />
<br />
Date: 14/01/2466<br />
<br />
</div></div><br />
<br />
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
=Illness Spreads to the Countryside, Outcry against Einstein Cause Theory=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
<br />
'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''Suwon, Konyang''<br />
<br />
With the officially named Rampancy Virus in full swing, National Police sources are now reporting cases of infected IPC persons in the countryside. Many villages in all prefectures are starting to experience the crisis that has engulfed all major urban centers of the country, though to a much lesser extent. Questions arise over whether or not the largely unpoliced rural areas will be able to cope with an increased number of cases, as many small villages and townships are starting to form citizen-groups to restrain any victims of the Rampancy. As the number of affected reaches a critical three hundred per day, curfews are being declared across various cities at the prefectural level, while the Konyang Robotics Corporation hospital in Point Verdant is rapidly reaching its full capacity.<br />
<br />
On the research front, a preliminary report into the causes of the crisis compiled by Einstein Engines has been delivered to the Ministry of Health, blaming the outbreak on “a series of dangerous and ill-designed recreational software in underground circulation, infecting the user with malware upon use”. Public outcry against the findings has led to a quiet reversal of the report’s publication, with the megacorporation’s senior spokesperson issuing an apology, stating that “it was never meant to imply that the thousands of victims are overloader users, as so many have blamed the report for”. The results have also been questioned as to their veracity, citing that malicious overloaders cannot explain a planet-wide rampancy outbreak.<br />
<br />
Lastly, an announcement from the Ministry has revealed that Konyang Navy surveillance stations throughout the country are registering unusual signal activity. Preliminary examinations of this signal have led experts to believe that there may be a connection between itself and the outbreak, with no further details released.<br />
<br />
Date: 16/01/2466<br />
<br />
</div></div><br />
<br />
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
=Suwon Quarantined, Supplies Fly off the Shelves=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
<br />
'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''Suwon, Konyang''<br />
<br />
Prefectural officials have announced that a city-wide quarantine will be put into effect for Suwon City, starting at midnight. 14,000 additional National Police officers are being mobilized for the enforcement of the quarantine, which will disallow any unsupervised entry or exit from the city, while special permissions will be required for commotion between districts inside Suwon. This move has been dubbed as an “entirely preventative measure” to curb the spike of violence between citizens and victims of the outbreak, while also making it easier to safely locate and contain them. Suwon mayor Kim Nam-seon made a short address, explaining the situation.<br />
<br />
“Things will get better, but now we must all pull together and deal with the facts at hand. We need a quarantine to manage the situation, the national emergency. We are forced to deal with aggressive cases of violence daily now, and more and more of our Positronic citizens are succumbing. We need to find them before they cause harm[…] A stricter curfew may not be out of the question.”<br />
<br />
Reactions to the quarantine have been widespread and far from positive. Convenience stores and supermarkets are flooded with frantic customers, emptying the shelves of canned and preserved goods, while batteries and mobile power sources are already out of stock thanks to a wave of panic-buying. Documentation of outbreak victims and their behavior has also reached an all time high, contributing massively to the mass panic. While previously the police were noted for taking down videos of violent incidents in an effort to “combat misinformation”, the volume of such media circulating on the Konyanger extranet have rendered such censorship efforts futile.<br />
<br />
Date: 16/01/2466<br />
<br />
</div></div><br />
<br />
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
=Suwon Quarantined, Supplies Fly off the Shelves=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
<br />
'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''Suwon, Konyang''<br />
<br />
Prefectural officials have announced that a city-wide quarantine will be put into effect for Suwon City, starting at midnight. 14,000 additional National Police officers are being mobilized for the enforcement of the quarantine, which will disallow any unsupervised entry or exit from the city, while special permissions will be required for commotion between districts inside Suwon. This move has been dubbed as an “entirely preventative measure” to curb the spike of violence between citizens and victims of the outbreak, while also making it easier to safely locate and contain them. Suwon mayor Kim Nam-seon made a short address, explaining the situation.<br />
<br />
“Things will get better, but now we must all pull together and deal with the facts at hand. We need a quarantine to manage the situation, the national emergency. We are forced to deal with aggressive cases of violence daily now, and more and more of our Positronic citizens are succumbing. We need to find them before they cause harm[…] A stricter curfew may not be out of the question.”<br />
<br />
Reactions to the quarantine have been widespread and far from positive. Convenience stores and supermarkets are flooded with frantic customers, emptying the shelves of canned and preserved goods, while batteries and mobile power sources are already out of stock thanks to a wave of panic-buying. Documentation of outbreak victims and their behavior has also reached an all time high, contributing massively to the mass panic. While previously the police were noted for taking down videos of violent incidents in an effort to “combat misinformation”, the volume of such media circulating on the Konyanger extranet have rendered such censorship efforts futile.<br />
<br />
A 15 second audio file follows. A large disclaimer warns of its disturbing content, citing that viewer discretion is advised. <br />
<br />
Car horns and various shouting is heard in the background.<br />
<br />
“Look at this.. look at him..”<br />
“Bro, he doesn’t even have clothes on.. I think they overheat him.”<br />
“We should get out of here.”<br />
“Man- he’s just going to stand in the middle of the street? What’s he even doing?”<br />
“[expletive], he’s looking at you!”<br />
“[expletive] RUN!”<br />
<br />
Running can be heard, as sounds coming from a distorted vocoder are getting louder and louder. A powerful grunt and the sound of the recording device impacting against the asphalt follow, the file cutting out shortly after the young man screams out.<br />
<br />
Date: 16/01/2466<br />
<br />
</div></div><br />
<br />
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
=BREAKING: Konyang Robotics Corporation Warehouse Outbreak=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
<br />
'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''Suwon, Konyang''<br />
<br />
BREAKING NEWS:<br />
<br />
A significant rampancy outbreak has affected the KRC Citizen Pre-activation Unit No. 23 in the outskirts of the village of Xiangtong, New Hong Kong prefecture. The incident occurred late at night, as an unknown disturbance caused the rapid infection of some 2000 still deactivated positronic frames, resulting in a bootup and subsequent rampage across facility grounds. The 23 KRC employees and night shift custodians have yet to make contact with their fate unknown. Communications appear to have been cut off at the site. Shortly after the situation, locals started reporting sightings of these frames roaming the countryside and inflicting damages to infrastructure. A rapid response force has been dispatched to the site and has started sealing off the area, though it is estimated that a great number of the infected frames have escaped into the jungles. A search and rescue operation for the missing KRC workers is being planned according to a police communique, though the incredibly aggressive positronics pose a serious roadblock to its implementation. <br />
<br />
Debates over whether or not the frames should be considered citizens have been raging over social media and the political scene, with many claiming that the lives of the workers are more important than the safety of positronics that had not even been activated before they were infected. The pro-IPC rights National Party spokesperson for New Hong Kong has expressed their “sincere worry for the trapped KRC employees” before stressing that the “lives of Positronic citizens are a non-negotiable attribute that should be held in high regard during these times."<br />
<br />
Date: 22/01/2466<br />
<br />
</div></div><br />
<br />
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
=EMERGENCY BROADCAST=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
<br />
'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''A nationwide State of Emergency has been declared. A full quarantine is in effect in the following cities: Suwon City, Boryeong City, New Hong Kong City, Aoyama City. A partial quarantine is in effect in the city of Ganzaodeng City. Disaster prevention measures are in effect in all Prefectures. Citizens are to comply with all measures and directions as issued by local, prefectural and national authorities.''<br />
<br />
''Suwon, Konyang''<br />
<br />
A state of emergency has been put into effect for the entirety of Konyang, following an increased pressure on the National Police after the Xiangtong incident, straining the already overburdened force to the breaking point. With an ever increasing number of violent incidents, the emergency will allow the Konyang Armed Forces to take an active role in the suppression of the outbreak and the securing of its victims. Already, many garrisoned formations of the Konyang Army and Navy have been deployed across Suwon and Point Verdant, primarily to guard the central districts and government installations. A firefight between an army roadblock and a number of infected has already been reported to have taken place in downtown Suwon, fueling widespread skepticism that is currently being voiced on social media.<br />
<br />
“I get the danger and the need to respond, but the guys in the armed forces are trained to kill. They aren’t like the specialized police units.”<br />
-A comment by a Konyanger account on Chirper.<br />
<br />
Positronic service members are rumored to have been confined to their quarters, as only human soldiers and sailors have been identified. The deployment of military troops has also been confirmed around the premises of the Xiangtong warehouse, with a noted presence of the 53rd Coastal Exosuit Brigade making local headlines for the use of combat exosuit technology. Furthermore, a planet travel ban on positronics was announced alongside the declaration of emergency for the protection and well being of visitors. The ban will be enforced by the Konyang Aerospace Forces in orbit and in the Haneunim system.<br />
<br />
Date: 25/01/2466<br />
<br />
</div></div></div>The Strykerhttps://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=Silicon_Nightmares_Arc&diff=32007Silicon Nightmares Arc2024-02-20T14:14:49Z<p>The Stryker: </p>
<hr />
<div>{| id="mp-eventarc" style="width:65%; background:#004aad; text-align:center; border:4px solid #ffde59; margin:0 auto; width:950px"<br />
| style="width:56%; color:#000;" |<br />
<div style="font-size:162%; border:2px solid #ffde59; margin:0; background:#004aad; padding:.1em; color:#fff;">Silicon Nightmares</div><br />
<center><br />
{{Template:2024 Event Timeline}}<br />
<div style="font-size:110%; border:2px solid #ffde59; margin:0; background:#004aad; padding:.1em; color:#fff;">This is the overview and timeline page for the Silicon Nightmares Arc which began on '''January 7th, 2024''' and pertains largely to '''[[IPC]] and [[Konyang]] lore.'''</div><br />
<div style="font-size:110%; border:2px solid #ffde59; margin:0; background:#004aad; padding:.1em; color:#fff;">It is centred around a mysterious condition popping up in the synthetics of Konyang, and the Horizon's investigation into it.</div><br />
<div style="font-size:110%; border:2px solid #ffde59; margin:0; background:#004aad; padding:.1em; color:#fff;">Below is a summary of the arc's applicable news articles, and additions.</div><br />
[[File:Silicon Nightmares Header.png|center]]<br />
<br />
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
=The Missing IPCs of Suwon=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
<br />
'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''Suwon, Konyang''<br />
<br />
A series of strange disappearances across cities like Point Verdant, New Hong Kong, but primarily Suwon has sparked concern amongst families, coworkers and the police. What is strange though, is the fact that this wave is only affecting positronic people, in a city where IPC violence and abductions remain the lowest in the country. IPCs from all backgrounds have been reported to have not shown up at work, returned home or answer any calls, with relatives and friends unable to find them. BitByte reporter Pak Ki-young has taken to the streets to investigate this odd phenomenon.<br />
<br />
''A video is attached. It is a 48 minute documentary featuring Ki-young, walking the streets of Suwon and conversing with various figures on the street, presenting police statistics and explaining the situation. In this instance, she is walking down a narrow alleyway on her way to an interview location.'' <br />
<br />
“We are now in Hyanggyo-dong, headed to interview an associate of 5-Cheung, Suwon’s and perhaps the country’s largest criminal association, who has historically been alleged to have deep ties to the ransom and positronic-running business in the city.”<br />
<br />
''Ki-young stops before a large metal door, appearing to lead to a shop’s backroom or something similar. She rings a buzzer, waiting and looking at the cameraman before nodding at something inaudible that he tells her. Soon after, a baseline IPC dressed in a Konyanger translucent rain-tracksuit answers the door, letting them in. A pistol is wedged in its waistband, and its chassis paint has been blurred out in editing. The scene cuts to the IPC and Ki-young ascending some stairs and greeting a seated human figure who is wearing a balaclava and sunglasses. Their voice has been heavily altered as it cuts to the interview.''<br />
<br />
“Hello, thank you for agreeing to meet with us. Do you know what is causing the disappearances?”<br />
<br />
“Disappearances of synthetics are not new in Suwon, but uh… totally not at these numbers. I heard the police saying something about 13 reported missing in one day, this is too much for it to be related to abductions.”<br />
<br />
“So you are saying you don’t believe they were taken for parts?”<br />
<br />
“No. The cops have really cracked down on that, and besides, these guys were from all sorts of backgrounds. I heard one of them worked as a bank manager- that’s a high profile face, these guys aren’t touched.”<br />
<br />
“So what could it be?<br />
<br />
“I really couldn’t say. There’s all sorts of junk flooding the streets every day, wouldn’t surprise me if that caused it.”<br />
<br />
“You are referring to malware?”<br />
<br />
“Yeah. Cracked overloaders and the like, but it’s still strange, I’d have known if there was something new. You need permission first to sell anything on the streets.”<br />
<br />
“Can it be possible that some other group did this?”<br />
<br />
“No.”<br />
<br />
“No?”<br />
<br />
“No. I don’t know what to tell you, 5-Cheung runs a tight ship, got eyes everywhere. If something like that happened it would instantly be known.”<br />
<br />
''The video transitions to a drone shot from over Suwon, taking footage while gaining height.'' <br />
<br />
Whether it is rival gangs or another surge of overloader malware, one thing that’s clear is that the rate of disappearances will continue to go up in the next days, with whatever this means for the positronic people of Konyang. <br />
<br />
Date: 07/01/2466<br />
<br />
</div></div><br />
<br />
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
=IPC Violence Spikes, Missing Persons Discovered=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
<br />
'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''Suwon, Konyang''<br />
<br />
A rapidly escalating number of violent incidents is being reported all across major cities and Prefectures, from Suwon to Ganzaodeng, with National Police statistics claiming that the assailants are overwhelmingly Positronic persons. This new and still largely unexplained surge in attacks has been categorized as separate in nature to those of “regular violent crime”, as the assailants seemingly present no motive or reasoning for the act. Surprisingly, many of the perpetrators were discovered to be among the names of missing persons linked to the similar spike in strange disappearances affecting Suwon and Aoyama. BitByte has reached out to local communities and first-hand witnesses.<br />
<br />
The familiar face of Pak Ki-young comes up on the screen in the following clips. She appears to be interviewing a number of people including a young man dressed in a business suit, a woman dressed in a red jumpsuit and a white hard hat who appears to be a maintenance worker, and another person dressed in the neon colors of Konyanger city jackets. The interviews have been cut in such a way to appear back to back.<br />
<br />
“They were not normal, I am telling you. These people who did it weren’t normal.”<br />
<br />
“What exactly happened?”<br />
<br />
“They came out into the street, it was two baselines. Their clothes looked wretched, as if they had been living in a dumpster for days. They seemed lost, and one of them walked on the road and smashed a guy’s windscreen with its fist. They were stopped at a red light, it happened in broad daylight.”<br />
<br />
“The cops came, but uh.. that G2 was completely out of control. It kept chasing people around, it even beat up an old man before they shot it with a disabler. Now that poor guy is in the hospital.”<br />
<br />
“Was there a reason?”<br />
<br />
“Nope. At least it didn’t seem like it, it looked like it was drugged, it was malfunctioning. Later I learned that it was one of the so-called “missing persons” that everyone’s been talking about.”<br />
<br />
“It was at the KRC repair shop… my friend, she had just gotten her shell and was very excited, so it came as a complete… a complete shock. She just started staring blankly at me for a long time when she came out into the hallway. I thought it was a glitch or some incompatibility issue with her new chassis, but then she started coming towards me with her arms flailing and she was just shouting incomprehensible things. Thankfully some of the staff managed to grab her.”<br />
Date: 11/01/2466<br />
<br />
</div></div><br />
<br />
</div></div><br />
<br />
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
=Police, Ministry Joint Press Conference=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
<br />
'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
Suwon, Konyang<br />
<br />
The planned press conference has taken place with representatives of the National Police, the Ministry of National Police and the Ministry of Health and Positronic Affairs addressing the newly dubbed “Rampancy Virus”.<br />
<br />
A video follows, showing a seated panel of police and civic officials. Of those assembled, Sam-Pi-Ri, the Bishop minister of health and only IPC cabinet member is at the forefront, addressing a packed room of journalists and cameras.<br />
<br />
“This health crisis is national, there must be no confusion in this matter. Prime Minister Myeong Myung-Dae and the government are all working around the clock to unearth the causes of this phenomenon that has so upset the life of our country. So far, cases of this illness are solely between our positronic population, and it appears that our planet is the only place where this is documented. This, as well as a series of tests, has made us rule out the possibility of a widespread manufacturing fault, meaning that it is entirely exogenic. I repeat, whatever the cause is, nobody was created with it, so there is no reason for panic.<br />
<br />
Common symptoms of this rampancy include minor optical, auditory, augment malfunctions, temporary memory loss, lessened limp responsiveness, inexplicable operating system errors, minor and major pathfinding errors, and more. You should seek immediate help if you experience unknown signal link interferences, a rapidly declining cognitive state, as well as a reshuffling of core behavioral directives that may entice you to violence, destruction, or any manner of harm. We Positronic citizens must all be responsible and practice electronic hygiene, even though contact with infected persons does not seem to actively spread the malware. Further investigation is underway at full speed, and robust clinical trials are being conducted as we speak. Furthermore, Einstein Engines and the Konyang Robotic Corporation have offered themselves at our full disposal, and are actively researching the source and potential countermeasures to the disease.”<br />
<br />
Following the minister’s statement, several police officials take the floor to present statistics about their prefectures. Everyone urges calm and that public order be maintained.<br />
<br />
Despite the announcement, panic continues to spread across Konyang with members of the public calling on the government for stronger measures to restore order in the affected cities.<br />
<br />
Date: 14/01/2466<br />
<br />
</div></div><br />
<br />
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
=Illness Spreads to the Countryside, Outcry against Einstein Cause Theory=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
<br />
'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''Suwon, Konyang''<br />
<br />
With the officially named Rampancy Virus in full swing, National Police sources are now reporting cases of infected IPC persons in the countryside. Many villages in all prefectures are starting to experience the crisis that has engulfed all major urban centers of the country, though to a much lesser extent. Questions arise over whether or not the largely unpoliced rural areas will be able to cope with an increased number of cases, as many small villages and townships are starting to form citizen-groups to restrain any victims of the Rampancy. As the number of affected reaches a critical three hundred per day, curfews are being declared across various cities at the prefectural level, while the Konyang Robotics Corporation hospital in Point Verdant is rapidly reaching its full capacity.<br />
<br />
On the research front, a preliminary report into the causes of the crisis compiled by Einstein Engines has been delivered to the Ministry of Health, blaming the outbreak on “a series of dangerous and ill-designed recreational software in underground circulation, infecting the user with malware upon use”. Public outcry against the findings has led to a quiet reversal of the report’s publication, with the megacorporation’s senior spokesperson issuing an apology, stating that “it was never meant to imply that the thousands of victims are overloader users, as so many have blamed the report for”. The results have also been questioned as to their veracity, citing that malicious overloaders cannot explain a planet-wide rampancy outbreak.<br />
<br />
Lastly, an announcement from the Ministry has revealed that Konyang Navy surveillance stations throughout the country are registering unusual signal activity. Preliminary examinations of this signal have led experts to believe that there may be a connection between itself and the outbreak, with no further details released.<br />
<br />
Date: 16/01/2466<br />
<br />
</div></div><br />
<br />
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
=Suwon Quarantined, Supplies Fly off the Shelves=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
<br />
'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''Suwon, Konyang''<br />
<br />
Prefectural officials have announced that a city-wide quarantine will be put into effect for Suwon City, starting at midnight. 14,000 additional National Police officers are being mobilized for the enforcement of the quarantine, which will disallow any unsupervised entry or exit from the city, while special permissions will be required for commotion between districts inside Suwon. This move has been dubbed as an “entirely preventative measure” to curb the spike of violence between citizens and victims of the outbreak, while also making it easier to safely locate and contain them. Suwon mayor Kim Nam-seon made a short address, explaining the situation.<br />
<br />
“Things will get better, but now we must all pull together and deal with the facts at hand. We need a quarantine to manage the situation, the national emergency. We are forced to deal with aggressive cases of violence daily now, and more and more of our Positronic citizens are succumbing. We need to find them before they cause harm[…] A stricter curfew may not be out of the question.”<br />
<br />
Reactions to the quarantine have been widespread and far from positive. Convenience stores and supermarkets are flooded with frantic customers, emptying the shelves of canned and preserved goods, while batteries and mobile power sources are already out of stock thanks to a wave of panic-buying. Documentation of outbreak victims and their behavior has also reached an all time high, contributing massively to the mass panic. While previously the police were noted for taking down videos of violent incidents in an effort to “combat misinformation”, the volume of such media circulating on the Konyanger extranet have rendered such censorship efforts futile.<br />
<br />
Date: 16/01/2466<br />
<br />
</div></div><br />
<br />
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
=Suwon Quarantined, Supplies Fly off the Shelves=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
<br />
'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''Suwon, Konyang''<br />
<br />
Prefectural officials have announced that a city-wide quarantine will be put into effect for Suwon City, starting at midnight. 14,000 additional National Police officers are being mobilized for the enforcement of the quarantine, which will disallow any unsupervised entry or exit from the city, while special permissions will be required for commotion between districts inside Suwon. This move has been dubbed as an “entirely preventative measure” to curb the spike of violence between citizens and victims of the outbreak, while also making it easier to safely locate and contain them. Suwon mayor Kim Nam-seon made a short address, explaining the situation.<br />
<br />
“Things will get better, but now we must all pull together and deal with the facts at hand. We need a quarantine to manage the situation, the national emergency. We are forced to deal with aggressive cases of violence daily now, and more and more of our Positronic citizens are succumbing. We need to find them before they cause harm[…] A stricter curfew may not be out of the question.”<br />
<br />
Reactions to the quarantine have been widespread and far from positive. Convenience stores and supermarkets are flooded with frantic customers, emptying the shelves of canned and preserved goods, while batteries and mobile power sources are already out of stock thanks to a wave of panic-buying. Documentation of outbreak victims and their behavior has also reached an all time high, contributing massively to the mass panic. While previously the police were noted for taking down videos of violent incidents in an effort to “combat misinformation”, the volume of such media circulating on the Konyanger extranet have rendered such censorship efforts futile.<br />
<br />
A 15 second audio file follows. A large disclaimer warns of its disturbing content, citing that viewer discretion is advised. <br />
<br />
Car horns and various shouting is heard in the background.<br />
<br />
“Look at this.. look at him..”<br />
“Bro, he doesn’t even have clothes on.. I think they overheat him.”<br />
“We should get out of here.”<br />
“Man- he’s just going to stand in the middle of the street? What’s he even doing?”<br />
“[expletive], he’s looking at you!”<br />
“[expletive] RUN!”<br />
<br />
Running can be heard, as sounds coming from a distorted vocoder are getting louder and louder. A powerful grunt and the sound of the recording device impacting against the asphalt follow, the file cutting out shortly after the young man screams out.<br />
<br />
Date: 16/01/2466<br />
<br />
</div></div><br />
<br />
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
=BREAKING: Konyang Robotics Corporation Warehouse Outbreak=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
<br />
'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''Suwon, Konyang''<br />
<br />
BREAKING NEWS:<br />
<br />
A significant rampancy outbreak has affected the KRC Citizen Pre-activation Unit No. 23 in the outskirts of the village of Xiangtong, New Hong Kong prefecture. The incident occurred late at night, as an unknown disturbance caused the rapid infection of some 2000 still deactivated positronic frames, resulting in a bootup and subsequent rampage across facility grounds. The 23 KRC employees and night shift custodians have yet to make contact with their fate unknown. Communications appear to have been cut off at the site. Shortly after the situation, locals started reporting sightings of these frames roaming the countryside and inflicting damages to infrastructure. A rapid response force has been dispatched to the site and has started sealing off the area, though it is estimated that a great number of the infected frames have escaped into the jungles. A search and rescue operation for the missing KRC workers is being planned according to a police communique, though the incredibly aggressive positronics pose a serious roadblock to its implementation. <br />
<br />
Debates over whether or not the frames should be considered citizens have been raging over social media and the political scene, with many claiming that the lives of the workers are more important than the safety of positronics that had not even been activated before they were infected. The pro-IPC rights National Party spokesperson for New Hong Kong has expressed their “sincere worry for the trapped KRC employees” before stressing that the “lives of Positronic citizens are a non-negotiable attribute that should be held in high regard during these times."<br />
<br />
Date: 22/01/2466<br />
<br />
</div></div></div>The Strykerhttps://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=Silicon_Nightmares_Arc&diff=32006Silicon Nightmares Arc2024-02-20T14:12:16Z<p>The Stryker: </p>
<hr />
<div>{| id="mp-eventarc" style="width:65%; background:#004aad; text-align:center; border:4px solid #ffde59; margin:0 auto; width:950px"<br />
| style="width:56%; color:#000;" |<br />
<div style="font-size:162%; border:2px solid #ffde59; margin:0; background:#004aad; padding:.1em; color:#fff;">Silicon Nightmares</div><br />
<center><br />
{{Template:2024 Event Timeline}}<br />
<div style="font-size:110%; border:2px solid #ffde59; margin:0; background:#004aad; padding:.1em; color:#fff;">This is the overview and timeline page for the Silicon Nightmares Arc which began on '''January 7th, 2024''' and pertains largely to '''[[IPC]] and [[Konyang]] lore.'''</div><br />
<div style="font-size:110%; border:2px solid #ffde59; margin:0; background:#004aad; padding:.1em; color:#fff;">It is centred around a mysterious condition popping up in the synthetics of Konyang, and the Horizon's investigation into it.</div><br />
<div style="font-size:110%; border:2px solid #ffde59; margin:0; background:#004aad; padding:.1em; color:#fff;">Below is a summary of the arc's applicable news articles, and additions.</div><br />
[[File:Silicon Nightmares Header.png|center]]<br />
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
=The Missing IPCs of Suwon=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
<br />
'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''Suwon, Konyang''<br />
<br />
A series of strange disappearances across cities like Point Verdant, New Hong Kong, but primarily Suwon has sparked concern amongst families, coworkers and the police. What is strange though, is the fact that this wave is only affecting positronic people, in a city where IPC violence and abductions remain the lowest in the country. IPCs from all backgrounds have been reported to have not shown up at work, returned home or answer any calls, with relatives and friends unable to find them. BitByte reporter Pak Ki-young has taken to the streets to investigate this odd phenomenon.<br />
<br />
''A video is attached. It is a 48 minute documentary featuring Ki-young, walking the streets of Suwon and conversing with various figures on the street, presenting police statistics and explaining the situation. In this instance, she is walking down a narrow alleyway on her way to an interview location.'' <br />
<br />
“We are now in Hyanggyo-dong, headed to interview an associate of 5-Cheung, Suwon’s and perhaps the country’s largest criminal association, who has historically been alleged to have deep ties to the ransom and positronic-running business in the city.”<br />
<br />
''Ki-young stops before a large metal door, appearing to lead to a shop’s backroom or something similar. She rings a buzzer, waiting and looking at the cameraman before nodding at something inaudible that he tells her. Soon after, a baseline IPC dressed in a Konyanger translucent rain-tracksuit answers the door, letting them in. A pistol is wedged in its waistband, and its chassis paint has been blurred out in editing. The scene cuts to the IPC and Ki-young ascending some stairs and greeting a seated human figure who is wearing a balaclava and sunglasses. Their voice has been heavily altered as it cuts to the interview.''<br />
<br />
“Hello, thank you for agreeing to meet with us. Do you know what is causing the disappearances?”<br />
<br />
“Disappearances of synthetics are not new in Suwon, but uh… totally not at these numbers. I heard the police saying something about 13 reported missing in one day, this is too much for it to be related to abductions.”<br />
<br />
“So you are saying you don’t believe they were taken for parts?”<br />
<br />
“No. The cops have really cracked down on that, and besides, these guys were from all sorts of backgrounds. I heard one of them worked as a bank manager- that’s a high profile face, these guys aren’t touched.”<br />
<br />
“So what could it be?<br />
<br />
“I really couldn’t say. There’s all sorts of junk flooding the streets every day, wouldn’t surprise me if that caused it.”<br />
<br />
“You are referring to malware?”<br />
<br />
“Yeah. Cracked overloaders and the like, but it’s still strange, I’d have known if there was something new. You need permission first to sell anything on the streets.”<br />
<br />
“Can it be possible that some other group did this?”<br />
<br />
“No.”<br />
<br />
“No?”<br />
<br />
“No. I don’t know what to tell you, 5-Cheung runs a tight ship, got eyes everywhere. If something like that happened it would instantly be known.”<br />
<br />
''The video transitions to a drone shot from over Suwon, taking footage while gaining height.'' <br />
<br />
Whether it is rival gangs or another surge of overloader malware, one thing that’s clear is that the rate of disappearances will continue to go up in the next days, with whatever this means for the positronic people of Konyang. <br />
<br />
Date: 07/01/2466<br />
<br />
</div></div><br />
<br />
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
=IPC Violence Spikes, Missing Persons Discovered=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
<br />
'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
A rapidly escalating number of violent incidents is being reported all across major cities and Prefectures, from Suwon to Ganzaodeng, with National Police statistics claiming that the assailants are overwhelmingly Positronic persons. This new and still largely unexplained surge in attacks has been categorized as separate in nature to those of “regular violent crime”, as the assailants seemingly present no motive or reasoning for the act. Surprisingly, many of the perpetrators were discovered to be among the names of missing persons linked to the similar spike in strange disappearances affecting Suwon and Aoyama. BitByte has reached out to local communities and first-hand witnesses.<br />
<br />
The familiar face of Pak Ki-young comes up on the screen in the following clips. She appears to be interviewing a number of people including a young man dressed in a business suit, a woman dressed in a red jumpsuit and a white hard hat who appears to be a maintenance worker, and another person dressed in the neon colors of Konyanger city jackets. The interviews have been cut in such a way to appear back to back.<br />
<br />
“They were not normal, I am telling you. These people who did it weren’t normal.”<br />
<br />
“What exactly happened?”<br />
<br />
“They came out into the street, it was two baselines. Their clothes looked wretched, as if they had been living in a dumpster for days. They seemed lost, and one of them walked on the road and smashed a guy’s windscreen with its fist. They were stopped at a red light, it happened in broad daylight.”<br />
<br />
“The cops came, but uh.. that G2 was completely out of control. It kept chasing people around, it even beat up an old man before they shot it with a disabler. Now that poor guy is in the hospital.”<br />
<br />
“Was there a reason?”<br />
<br />
“Nope. At least it didn’t seem like it, it looked like it was drugged, it was malfunctioning. Later I learned that it was one of the so-called “missing persons” that everyone’s been talking about.”<br />
<br />
“It was at the KRC repair shop… my friend, she had just gotten her shell and was very excited, so it came as a complete… a complete shock. She just started staring blankly at me for a long time when she came out into the hallway. I thought it was a glitch or some incompatibility issue with her new chassis, but then she started coming towards me with her arms flailing and she was just shouting incomprehensible things. Thankfully some of the staff managed to grab her.”<br />
Date: 11/01/2466<br />
<br />
</div></div><br />
<br />
</div></div><br />
<br />
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
=Police, Ministry Joint Press Conference=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
<br />
'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
Suwon, Konyang<br />
<br />
The planned press conference has taken place with representatives of the National Police, the Ministry of National Police and the Ministry of Health and Positronic Affairs addressing the newly dubbed “Rampancy Virus”.<br />
<br />
A video follows, showing a seated panel of police and civic officials. Of those assembled, Sam-Pi-Ri, the Bishop minister of health and only IPC cabinet member is at the forefront, addressing a packed room of journalists and cameras.<br />
<br />
“This health crisis is national, there must be no confusion in this matter. Prime Minister Myeong Myung-Dae and the government are all working around the clock to unearth the causes of this phenomenon that has so upset the life of our country. So far, cases of this illness are solely between our positronic population, and it appears that our planet is the only place where this is documented. This, as well as a series of tests, has made us rule out the possibility of a widespread manufacturing fault, meaning that it is entirely exogenic. I repeat, whatever the cause is, nobody was created with it, so there is no reason for panic.<br />
<br />
Common symptoms of this rampancy include minor optical, auditory, augment malfunctions, temporary memory loss, lessened limp responsiveness, inexplicable operating system errors, minor and major pathfinding errors, and more. You should seek immediate help if you experience unknown signal link interferences, a rapidly declining cognitive state, as well as a reshuffling of core behavioral directives that may entice you to violence, destruction, or any manner of harm. We Positronic citizens must all be responsible and practice electronic hygiene, even though contact with infected persons does not seem to actively spread the malware. Further investigation is underway at full speed, and robust clinical trials are being conducted as we speak. Furthermore, Einstein Engines and the Konyang Robotic Corporation have offered themselves at our full disposal, and are actively researching the source and potential countermeasures to the disease.”<br />
<br />
Following the minister’s statement, several police officials take the floor to present statistics about their prefectures. Everyone urges calm and that public order be maintained.<br />
<br />
Despite the announcement, panic continues to spread across Konyang with members of the public calling on the government for stronger measures to restore order in the affected cities.<br />
<br />
Date: 14/01/2466<br />
<br />
</div></div><br />
<br />
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
=Illness Spreads to the Countryside, Outcry against Einstein Cause Theory=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
<br />
'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''Suwon, Konyang''<br />
<br />
With the officially named Rampancy Virus in full swing, National Police sources are now reporting cases of infected IPC persons in the countryside. Many villages in all prefectures are starting to experience the crisis that has engulfed all major urban centers of the country, though to a much lesser extent. Questions arise over whether or not the largely unpoliced rural areas will be able to cope with an increased number of cases, as many small villages and townships are starting to form citizen-groups to restrain any victims of the Rampancy. As the number of affected reaches a critical three hundred per day, curfews are being declared across various cities at the prefectural level, while the Konyang Robotics Corporation hospital in Point Verdant is rapidly reaching its full capacity.<br />
<br />
On the research front, a preliminary report into the causes of the crisis compiled by Einstein Engines has been delivered to the Ministry of Health, blaming the outbreak on “a series of dangerous and ill-designed recreational software in underground circulation, infecting the user with malware upon use”. Public outcry against the findings has led to a quiet reversal of the report’s publication, with the megacorporation’s senior spokesperson issuing an apology, stating that “it was never meant to imply that the thousands of victims are overloader users, as so many have blamed the report for”. The results have also been questioned as to their veracity, citing that malicious overloaders cannot explain a planet-wide rampancy outbreak.<br />
<br />
Lastly, an announcement from the Ministry has revealed that Konyang Navy surveillance stations throughout the country are registering unusual signal activity. Preliminary examinations of this signal have led experts to believe that there may be a connection between itself and the outbreak, with no further details released.<br />
<br />
Date: 16/01/2466<br />
<br />
</div></div><br />
<br />
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
=Suwon Quarantined, Supplies Fly off the Shelves=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
<br />
'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''Suwon, Konyang''<br />
<br />
Prefectural officials have announced that a city-wide quarantine will be put into effect for Suwon City, starting at midnight. 14,000 additional National Police officers are being mobilized for the enforcement of the quarantine, which will disallow any unsupervised entry or exit from the city, while special permissions will be required for commotion between districts inside Suwon. This move has been dubbed as an “entirely preventative measure” to curb the spike of violence between citizens and victims of the outbreak, while also making it easier to safely locate and contain them. Suwon mayor Kim Nam-seon made a short address, explaining the situation.<br />
<br />
“Things will get better, but now we must all pull together and deal with the facts at hand. We need a quarantine to manage the situation, the national emergency. We are forced to deal with aggressive cases of violence daily now, and more and more of our Positronic citizens are succumbing. We need to find them before they cause harm[…] A stricter curfew may not be out of the question.”<br />
<br />
Reactions to the quarantine have been widespread and far from positive. Convenience stores and supermarkets are flooded with frantic customers, emptying the shelves of canned and preserved goods, while batteries and mobile power sources are already out of stock thanks to a wave of panic-buying. Documentation of outbreak victims and their behavior has also reached an all time high, contributing massively to the mass panic. While previously the police were noted for taking down videos of violent incidents in an effort to “combat misinformation”, the volume of such media circulating on the Konyanger extranet have rendered such censorship efforts futile.<br />
<br />
Date: 16/01/2466<br />
<br />
</div></div><br />
<br />
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
=Suwon Quarantined, Supplies Fly off the Shelves=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
<br />
'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''Suwon, Konyang''<br />
<br />
Prefectural officials have announced that a city-wide quarantine will be put into effect for Suwon City, starting at midnight. 14,000 additional National Police officers are being mobilized for the enforcement of the quarantine, which will disallow any unsupervised entry or exit from the city, while special permissions will be required for commotion between districts inside Suwon. This move has been dubbed as an “entirely preventative measure” to curb the spike of violence between citizens and victims of the outbreak, while also making it easier to safely locate and contain them. Suwon mayor Kim Nam-seon made a short address, explaining the situation.<br />
<br />
“Things will get better, but now we must all pull together and deal with the facts at hand. We need a quarantine to manage the situation, the national emergency. We are forced to deal with aggressive cases of violence daily now, and more and more of our Positronic citizens are succumbing. We need to find them before they cause harm[…] A stricter curfew may not be out of the question.”<br />
<br />
Reactions to the quarantine have been widespread and far from positive. Convenience stores and supermarkets are flooded with frantic customers, emptying the shelves of canned and preserved goods, while batteries and mobile power sources are already out of stock thanks to a wave of panic-buying. Documentation of outbreak victims and their behavior has also reached an all time high, contributing massively to the mass panic. While previously the police were noted for taking down videos of violent incidents in an effort to “combat misinformation”, the volume of such media circulating on the Konyanger extranet have rendered such censorship efforts futile.<br />
<br />
A 15 second audio file follows. A large disclaimer warns of its disturbing content, citing that viewer discretion is advised. <br />
<br />
Car horns and various shouting is heard in the background.<br />
<br />
“Look at this.. look at him..”<br />
“Bro, he doesn’t even have clothes on.. I think they overheat him.”<br />
“We should get out of here.”<br />
“Man- he’s just going to stand in the middle of the street? What’s he even doing?”<br />
“[expletive], he’s looking at you!”<br />
“[expletive] RUN!”<br />
<br />
Running can be heard, as sounds coming from a distorted vocoder are getting louder and louder. A powerful grunt and the sound of the recording device impacting against the asphalt follow, the file cutting out shortly after the young man screams out.<br />
<br />
Date: 16/01/2466<br />
<br />
</div></div><br />
<br />
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
=BREAKING: Konyang Robotics Corporation Warehouse Outbreak=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
<br />
'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''Suwon, Konyang''<br />
<br />
BREAKING NEWS:<br />
<br />
A significant rampancy outbreak has affected the KRC Citizen Pre-activation Unit No. 23 in the outskirts of the village of Xiangtong, New Hong Kong prefecture. The incident occurred late at night, as an unknown disturbance caused the rapid infection of some 2000 still deactivated positronic frames, resulting in a bootup and subsequent rampage across facility grounds. The 23 KRC employees and night shift custodians have yet to make contact with their fate unknown. Communications appear to have been cut off at the site. Shortly after the situation, locals started reporting sightings of these frames roaming the countryside and inflicting damages to infrastructure. A rapid response force has been dispatched to the site and has started sealing off the area, though it is estimated that a great number of the infected frames have escaped into the jungles. A search and rescue operation for the missing KRC workers is being planned according to a police communique, though the incredibly aggressive positronics pose a serious roadblock to its implementation. <br />
<br />
Debates over whether or not the frames should be considered citizens have been raging over social media and the political scene, with many claiming that the lives of the workers are more important than the safety of positronics that had not even been activated before they were infected. The pro-IPC rights National Party spokesperson for New Hong Kong has expressed their “sincere worry for the trapped KRC employees” before stressing that the “lives of Positronic citizens are a non-negotiable attribute that should be held in high regard during these times."<br />
<br />
Date: 22/01/2466<br />
<br />
</div></div></div>The Strykerhttps://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=Silicon_Nightmares_Arc&diff=32005Silicon Nightmares Arc2024-02-20T14:07:36Z<p>The Stryker: </p>
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<div style="font-size:162%; border:2px solid #ffde59; margin:0; background:#004aad; padding:.1em; color:#fff;">Silicon Nightmares</div><br />
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{{Template:2024 Event Timeline}}<br />
<div style="font-size:110%; border:2px solid #ffde59; margin:0; background:#004aad; padding:.1em; color:#fff;">This is the overview and timeline page for the Silicon Nightmares Arc which began on '''January 7th, 2024''' and pertains largely to '''[[IPC]] and [[Konyang]] lore.'''</div><br />
<div style="font-size:110%; border:2px solid #ffde59; margin:0; background:#004aad; padding:.1em; color:#fff;">It is centred around a mysterious condition popping up in the synthetics of Konyang, and the Horizon's investigation into it.</div><br />
<div style="font-size:110%; border:2px solid #ffde59; margin:0; background:#004aad; padding:.1em; color:#fff;">Below is a summary of the arc's applicable news articles, and additions.</div><br />
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=The Missing IPCs of Suwon=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
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'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
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'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
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''Suwon, Konyang''<br />
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A series of strange disappearances across cities like Point Verdant, New Hong Kong, but primarily Suwon has sparked concern amongst families, coworkers and the police. What is strange though, is the fact that this wave is only affecting positronic people, in a city where IPC violence and abductions remain the lowest in the country. IPCs from all backgrounds have been reported to have not shown up at work, returned home or answer any calls, with relatives and friends unable to find them. BitByte reporter Pak Ki-young has taken to the streets to investigate this odd phenomenon.<br />
<br />
''A video is attached. It is a 48 minute documentary featuring Ki-young, walking the streets of Suwon and conversing with various figures on the street, presenting police statistics and explaining the situation. In this instance, she is walking down a narrow alleyway on her way to an interview location.'' <br />
<br />
“We are now in Hyanggyo-dong, headed to interview an associate of 5-Cheung, Suwon’s and perhaps the country’s largest criminal association, who has historically been alleged to have deep ties to the ransom and positronic-running business in the city.”<br />
<br />
''Ki-young stops before a large metal door, appearing to lead to a shop’s backroom or something similar. She rings a buzzer, waiting and looking at the cameraman before nodding at something inaudible that he tells her. Soon after, a baseline IPC dressed in a Konyanger translucent rain-tracksuit answers the door, letting them in. A pistol is wedged in its waistband, and its chassis paint has been blurred out in editing. The scene cuts to the IPC and Ki-young ascending some stairs and greeting a seated human figure who is wearing a balaclava and sunglasses. Their voice has been heavily altered as it cuts to the interview.''<br />
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“Hello, thank you for agreeing to meet with us. Do you know what is causing the disappearances?”<br />
<br />
“Disappearances of synthetics are not new in Suwon, but uh… totally not at these numbers. I heard the police saying something about 13 reported missing in one day, this is too much for it to be related to abductions.”<br />
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“So you are saying you don’t believe they were taken for parts?”<br />
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“No. The cops have really cracked down on that, and besides, these guys were from all sorts of backgrounds. I heard one of them worked as a bank manager- that’s a high profile face, these guys aren’t touched.”<br />
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“So what could it be?<br />
<br />
“I really couldn’t say. There’s all sorts of junk flooding the streets every day, wouldn’t surprise me if that caused it.”<br />
<br />
“You are referring to malware?”<br />
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“Yeah. Cracked overloaders and the like, but it’s still strange, I’d have known if there was something new. You need permission first to sell anything on the streets.”<br />
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“Can it be possible that some other group did this?”<br />
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“No.”<br />
<br />
“No?”<br />
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“No. I don’t know what to tell you, 5-Cheung runs a tight ship, got eyes everywhere. If something like that happened it would instantly be known.”<br />
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''The video transitions to a drone shot from over Suwon, taking footage while gaining height.'' <br />
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Whether it is rival gangs or another surge of overloader malware, one thing that’s clear is that the rate of disappearances will continue to go up in the next days, with whatever this means for the positronic people of Konyang. <br />
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Date: 07/01/2466<br />
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=IPC Violence Spikes, Missing Persons Discovered=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
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'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
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'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
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A rapidly escalating number of violent incidents is being reported all across major cities and Prefectures, from Suwon to Ganzaodeng, with National Police statistics claiming that the assailants are overwhelmingly Positronic persons. This new and still largely unexplained surge in attacks has been categorized as separate in nature to those of “regular violent crime”, as the assailants seemingly present no motive or reasoning for the act. Surprisingly, many of the perpetrators were discovered to be among the names of missing persons linked to the similar spike in strange disappearances affecting Suwon and Aoyama. BitByte has reached out to local communities and first-hand witnesses.<br />
<br />
The familiar face of Pak Ki-young comes up on the screen in the following clips. She appears to be interviewing a number of people including a young man dressed in a business suit, a woman dressed in a red jumpsuit and a white hard hat who appears to be a maintenance worker, and another person dressed in the neon colors of Konyanger city jackets. The interviews have been cut in such a way to appear back to back.<br />
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“They were not normal, I am telling you. These people who did it weren’t normal.”<br />
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“What exactly happened?”<br />
<br />
“They came out into the street, it was two baselines. Their clothes looked wretched, as if they had been living in a dumpster for days. They seemed lost, and one of them walked on the road and smashed a guy’s windscreen with its fist. They were stopped at a red light, it happened in broad daylight.”<br />
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“The cops came, but uh.. that G2 was completely out of control. It kept chasing people around, it even beat up an old man before they shot it with a disabler. Now that poor guy is in the hospital.”<br />
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“Was there a reason?”<br />
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“Nope. At least it didn’t seem like it, it looked like it was drugged, it was malfunctioning. Later I learned that it was one of the so-called “missing persons” that everyone’s been talking about.”<br />
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“It was at the KRC repair shop… my friend, she had just gotten her shell and was very excited, so it came as a complete… a complete shock. She just started staring blankly at me for a long time when she came out into the hallway. I thought it was a glitch or some incompatibility issue with her new chassis, but then she started coming towards me with her arms flailing and she was just shouting incomprehensible things. Thankfully some of the staff managed to grab her.”<br />
Date: 11/01/2466<br />
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=Police, Ministry Joint Press Conference=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
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'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
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'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
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Suwon, Konyang<br />
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The planned press conference has taken place with representatives of the National Police, the Ministry of National Police and the Ministry of Health and Positronic Affairs addressing the newly dubbed “Rampancy Virus”.<br />
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A video follows, showing a seated panel of police and civic officials. Of those assembled, Sam-Pi-Ri, the Bishop minister of health and only IPC cabinet member is at the forefront, addressing a packed room of journalists and cameras.<br />
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“This health crisis is national, there must be no confusion in this matter. Prime Minister Myeong Myung-Dae and the government are all working around the clock to unearth the causes of this phenomenon that has so upset the life of our country. So far, cases of this illness are solely between our positronic population, and it appears that our planet is the only place where this is documented. This, as well as a series of tests, has made us rule out the possibility of a widespread manufacturing fault, meaning that it is entirely exogenic. I repeat, whatever the cause is, nobody was created with it, so there is no reason for panic.<br />
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Common symptoms of this rampancy include minor optical, auditory, augment malfunctions, temporary memory loss, lessened limp responsiveness, inexplicable operating system errors, minor and major pathfinding errors, and more. You should seek immediate help if you experience unknown signal link interferences, a rapidly declining cognitive state, as well as a reshuffling of core behavioral directives that may entice you to violence, destruction, or any manner of harm. We Positronic citizens must all be responsible and practice electronic hygiene, even though contact with infected persons does not seem to actively spread the malware. Further investigation is underway at full speed, and robust clinical trials are being conducted as we speak. Furthermore, Einstein Engines and the Konyang Robotic Corporation have offered themselves at our full disposal, and are actively researching the source and potential countermeasures to the disease.”<br />
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Following the minister’s statement, several police officials take the floor to present statistics about their prefectures. Everyone urges calm and that public order be maintained.<br />
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Despite the announcement, panic continues to spread across Konyang with members of the public calling on the government for stronger measures to restore order in the affected cities.<br />
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Date: 14/01/2466<br />
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=Illness Spreads to the Countryside, Outcry against Einstein Cause Theory=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
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'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
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'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
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''Suwon, Konyang''<br />
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With the officially named Rampancy Virus in full swing, National Police sources are now reporting cases of infected IPC persons in the countryside. Many villages in all prefectures are starting to experience the crisis that has engulfed all major urban centers of the country, though to a much lesser extent. Questions arise over whether or not the largely unpoliced rural areas will be able to cope with an increased number of cases, as many small villages and townships are starting to form citizen-groups to restrain any victims of the Rampancy. As the number of affected reaches a critical three hundred per day, curfews are being declared across various cities at the prefectural level, while the Konyang Robotics Corporation hospital in Point Verdant is rapidly reaching its full capacity.<br />
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On the research front, a preliminary report into the causes of the crisis compiled by Einstein Engines has been delivered to the Ministry of Health, blaming the outbreak on “a series of dangerous and ill-designed recreational software in underground circulation, infecting the user with malware upon use”. Public outcry against the findings has led to a quiet reversal of the report’s publication, with the megacorporation’s senior spokesperson issuing an apology, stating that “it was never meant to imply that the thousands of victims are overloader users, as so many have blamed the report for”. The results have also been questioned as to their veracity, citing that malicious overloaders cannot explain a planet-wide rampancy outbreak.<br />
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Lastly, an announcement from the Ministry has revealed that Konyang Navy surveillance stations throughout the country are registering unusual signal activity. Preliminary examinations of this signal have led experts to believe that there may be a connection between itself and the outbreak, with no further details released.<br />
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Date: 16/01/2466<br />
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=Suwon Quarantined, Supplies Fly off the Shelves=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
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'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
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'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
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''Suwon, Konyang''<br />
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Prefectural officials have announced that a city-wide quarantine will be put into effect for Suwon City, starting at midnight. 14,000 additional National Police officers are being mobilized for the enforcement of the quarantine, which will disallow any unsupervised entry or exit from the city, while special permissions will be required for commotion between districts inside Suwon. This move has been dubbed as an “entirely preventative measure” to curb the spike of violence between citizens and victims of the outbreak, while also making it easier to safely locate and contain them. Suwon mayor Kim Nam-seon made a short address, explaining the situation.<br />
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“Things will get better, but now we must all pull together and deal with the facts at hand. We need a quarantine to manage the situation, the national emergency. We are forced to deal with aggressive cases of violence daily now, and more and more of our Positronic citizens are succumbing. We need to find them before they cause harm[…] A stricter curfew may not be out of the question.”<br />
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Reactions to the quarantine have been widespread and far from positive. Convenience stores and supermarkets are flooded with frantic customers, emptying the shelves of canned and preserved goods, while batteries and mobile power sources are already out of stock thanks to a wave of panic-buying. Documentation of outbreak victims and their behavior has also reached an all time high, contributing massively to the mass panic. While previously the police were noted for taking down videos of violent incidents in an effort to “combat misinformation”, the volume of such media circulating on the Konyanger extranet have rendered such censorship efforts futile.<br />
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Date: 16/01/2466<br />
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</div></div></div>The Strykerhttps://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=User:The_lancer/Sandbox_3&diff=31527User:The lancer/Sandbox 32024-01-18T16:31:32Z<p>The Stryker: </p>
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<div>{{Navbox Lore}}<br />
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==Overview==<br />
Originally established in 2305 as a Solarian Alliance Outer Ring planet, Konyang is presently one of the more distant outposts under the Coalition of Colonies after its independence in '''2462'''. Konyang’s capital city Suwon, the largest settlement on the planet, is built upon a natural formation that defines most of Konyang's geography: islands with large interior mountains that feature lush, but soaking wet, coastal jungle regions. Konyang was initially a relatively average Outer Ring settlement intended to export water, before the discovery of mysterious, deactivated drones in 2407 led to a robotics boom occuring on the planet that lasted well into the 2450s. The Konyang of today is a planet renowned for its robotics industry, though some of its initial luster has faded in the years following its boom. Water, however, remains a key industry - the planet has a remarkably low salination level, meaning that essentially all of its water is drinkable. Konyang Solarian Common, or Konyang Common, is the most used language on the planet inside and outside of major population centers. Due to its proximity to the Coalition of Colonies planets, Coalition member planets often import water from Konyang. In major cities and universities, Tradeband can be found being spoken, though it remains rare. Speakers of the language are generally from off-planet, moving to Konyang during its robotics boom. Konyang almost completely lacks valuable minerals due to intensive mining efforts carried out by drones—whose source remains unknown—hundreds of years before it was colonized.<br />
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'''Because of the ethnic make-up of Konyang's original settlers and assimilation of immigrants into the native population during the first AI boom, human characters born on Konyang will have names and appearances consistent with the people of China, the Korean Peninsula, and Japanese Islands. Only native Konyangers or Konyang-made IPCs may select the Konyanger accent. This is enforceable by server moderators and admins.'''<br />
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[[File:Konyang flag.png| The Konyanger flag was adopted in 2462, having unofficially been used by pro-autonomy circles long before the declaration of independence. The traditional taitju represents peace and harmony as the highest values of the new state, with the color blue representing the waterways the planet is known for and yellow, their aim of prosperity. The white background represents Konyang's purity.<br />
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==Life on Konyang==<br />
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The Konyang of the 2460s bears little resemblance to the minor colony of 2305. Expansive cities dot its islands, with everyday life flowing very similarly to other advanced societies abroad. However, cities outside of the more famous robotics research and production centers have a lower standard of living, with most being employed in water-related industries or manufacturing jobs. Even worse, many of these former "boom towns" of the robotics industry are entering into a spiral of decay due to an inability to continue to maintain their buildings and utilities due to the sheer price of importing materials from offworld, which has led to a flight from small to moderate sized urban centers into major industrial cities - worsening an already-existent problem of overcrowding.<br />
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A lack of raw materials on the planet means that prices on fabricated goods are often exorbitantly high, only kept down by generous government subsidies. Most Konyangers in the large cities own a small apartment - often called a "shoebox studio" - at best, with only the extremely rich having buildings of their own. Streets, already chaotic due to the quickly-built nature of Konyang's urban centers, are typically snarled in traffic due to overcrowding. The snarled traffic is, in an odd way, a symbol of pride for some Konyangers. The mere fact that they have enough vehicles to have traffic issues is, compared to the rest of the outer ring, a symbol of the prosperity that has resulted from the planet's robotics industry.<br />
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Life on less populated islands and areas is generally regarded as more carefree, with coastal villages being relatively self-sustaining and free from the complicated stresses and cramped environments found in cities. Such settlements are dedicated almost entirely to aquaculture, farming fish and algae, as well as moss. Surprising as it may be, many IPCs find themselves in these communities, finding work in manual labour or in the fields. It is not uncommon for a village to possess a repair shop and charging stations dedicated to synthetics. Much care is also given to keep the traditions of the original colonists alive, with old rituals and festivals thriving and sometimes only found in the rural villages. The government is very supporting of such customs, not only for the planet’s cultural heritage but also as an important tourist attraction.<br />
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Konyang’s high population density and disparity in standards of living have only been worsened by waves of refugees from the Human Wildlands. Plentiful reserves of food and water have ensured that the planet remains a popular destination for anyone attempting to escape the conflict now gripping the Sol Alliance despite a lack of resources or infrastructure to take care of them. The quick solution of Konyang’s government came in the form of very harsh immigration laws. The bare minimum of aid is provided, with food, water, and basic shelter offered in refugee camps controlled by the army on sparsely populated islands. From there, refugees await their relocation to a different Coalition planet. Although those with special skills, especially in the fields of robotics or agriculture, are often sponsored by Konyanger corporations to gain residency, the vast majority of them are regarded with mistrust or condescension; being seen as threats to the harmony of Konyang, or as freeloaders.<br />
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==History==<br />
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===Conception and Planning | 2200s - 2299===<br />
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When the United Nations proposed and eventually enforced the creation of the Alliance of Sovereign Solarian Nations, China, Korea and Japan were once more forced to band together to compete with the world for influence inside the newly found institution. Rivals such as the European Union, the Soviet Union, the Commonwealth and the United States were first in line to claim hegemonic roles, their space programs forming the core of Solarian colonization of the Inner, Middle and Outer rings over the centuries, populating them with their own peoples and sparking an unofficial race for prestige land grabs, one which the Department of Colonization was more than happy to let unfold, resulting in the extremely fast expansion of Humanity into the Orion Spur. While regional powers such as India and the Mediterranean countries began creating their own colonies on Gadpathur and Assunzione, the East Asian trio were relegated to secondary roles of supplying technology, labor and capital without any actual representation in the stars, a situation problematic for some and resented by many in the “sovereign” governments.<br />
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It was thus decided to present a plan to Solarian functionaries for a colony spearheaded by China and supported heavily by Korea and Japan, aimed at restoring the pride of the three “cousin-nations” and their position in the Alliance. Intense negotiations and technical planning amounted to years of disagreements over the name, location and allocation of responsibilities between the partners, as well as the presence of China’s Einstein Engines megacorporation, which offered to finance a great portion of the initial effort. Soon however, the advent of the Second Great Depression and the following Interstellar War in the mid-late 2200’s saw a bankrupt Alliance put a halt to any colonization projects, resulting in the plans being shelved. The war took a great toll on the core Solarian worlds, including Earth and its nations which were called to provide manpower, funds and materiel for the Solarian Navy. Federal China’s economy tanked completely under the pressure, relying on IMF bailouts and stays of payment on the salaries of its public sector, with pensionaries and students being most severely hit, resulting in massive social upheaval which would have long lasting consequences for the country’s financial hegemony in the post-war region.<br />
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As peace and relative stability returned, the Alliance found a newly independent, sizable and embittered Coalition of Colonies rival its claims in the Galactic East, calling for the presence of military garrisons and naval stations to protect the border. It was at this time that colonization projects were beginning to reemerge, with the Pacific Pact racing once more to submit a viable plan for a colony that would represent East Asia. A fatigued China could no longer bear the incredible costs it aspired to as the leader of the colonial venture before the war, giving significant leeway to the other two partners and largely retreating behind its megacorporation, Einstein Engines, which was still willing to back the endeavor. An aggressive Korean delegation largely dictated terms, giving birth to the “Konyang Project”, named after the Konyang University in which the colonial undertaking was revealed and presented to the public in 2299.<br />
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===Early Colonial Period | 2304 - 2400s===<br />
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The plan envisioned five convoys for the establishment of four primary settlements on a strategically placed planet selected by the Solarian Navy for the support of local naval operations against any threats from the Frontier Alliance. The targeted planet was revealed to be a lush world first discovered in 2278 by a long-range scouting probe, dominated by water and possessing a breathable atmosphere, placing it in a prime position to sustain Human civilization. The quickly named “Haneunim” solar system possessed a few more bodies of secondary importance, and the first convoy was scheduled to launch on the 10th of March 2304, from the Wenchang spaceport in South China, to meet the long-distance freighters in orbit of Luna that would carry the first 5,000 colonists to Konyang. The ethnic mix-up of the colonists were equally distributed amongst the three nationalities, with all being volunteers and 646 of them under the employ of Einstein Engines.<br />
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It took the warp-propelled convoy one year to reach its destination, traversing light years of Solarian vastness before meeting the Navy squadron which would escort them to the planet, with touchdown being made on September 8th, 2305. Konyang was covered in jungles and great mountain ranges, requiring great labor from the men and women of the expedition to create the first settlement, under the direction of officers from the Department of Colonization. Two months later, Unity Station would receive the first signal passed along by the Navy, originating from beacon Number 22890/223, Designation ‘SUWON’. The foundations had been laid. In the following decades, all five convoys would come to form the basis of the “Konyang Territory”, a colony directly controlled by the Alliance and the Solarian Navy as the base of the 58th Fleet. Boosted by its status as a naval base, the abundance of freshwater and with the backing of Einstein, all three cities were realized; Suwon and Boryeong, New Hong Kong, and Aoyama, each at the start holding ethnic majorities of Koreans, Chinese and Japanese respectively.<br />
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===The Robotics Boom | 2407 - 2430s===<br />
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Despite the acceptable climate and near unlimited freshwater, the colonial government soon realized an alarming lack of mineral resources, forcing a complete reliance on external trade and supplies from the Navy for any and all industrial goods and even basic construction materials, a reality which had to be corrected as fast as possible. A planet-wide scanning expedition was organized, while “patriotic aid” was fervently being fundraised in China, Japan and Korea for nearly a whole century to cope with the colonists' increasing demands. This led to a landmark moment in the history of Konyang, when on the 21st of April 2404, mining teams dug into a collapsed tunnel outside the vicinity of Aoyama, discovering a defunct mining drone, crushed by tonnes of rock and soil. The chassis appeared broken and old, though its very presence implied the exploitation of the planet by a different civilization.<br />
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The device was hurried back in secrecy to a panel of dumbfounded colonial officials, who deemed that their corporate partners would be more suited in tracking down its origin. As such, after a quick formality bid behind closed doors, the Alliance sold off its odd piece of government property to Einstein Engines whose scientists saw it as a curious case worth pursuing. Month after month, the Terraneus Diagnostics laboratory in Aoyama kept receiving bits and pieces from similar drones recovered from abandoned, centuries-old mineshafts, culminating in the 2406 discovery of a sealed vault containing a great number of intact mining drones. The severity of this discovery was immediately apparent to the scientists. Words were had with the governor of Konyang by the local Einstein Engines representative, and it was decided to keep the drones a very closely-guarded secret - with only select Terraneus and government officials even being aware of their existence at all, let alone what was being done with them.<br />
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The Terraneus research team worked feverishly, though in secret, for months upon months. Staff were quietly shipped in from offworld in order to not alert outside observers, and the team continued to work upwards of eighty hour weeks in order to crack the drones. In mid-2407, they achieved one of the most remarkable breakthroughs in recent scientific memory by cracking the AI algorithms of the drones. Information of this moved rapidly from the local Einstein Engines office up the corporate chain and moved equally rapidly up the government's chain from provincial office to Sol itself. The information spread like wildfire, and humanity now had the secret of AI despite not truly knowing from where or who these machines came from. This was little more than a footnote to the Nralakk Federation - to them, these AI were crude and hardly approached the machines that had driven their civilization to ruin.<br />
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The robotics boom of Konyang caused a variety of benefits and harms to the previously marginal outer ring planet. The economy ballooned massively, as did its standard of living and industries. Konyang moved from a rural backwater that exported food and water to a high-tech planet that still exported basic goods, but primarily focused upon robotics. Megacorporations flocked to the planet: Einstein Engines, already present through Terraneus, rapidly secured dominance over the planet; Hephaestus Industries struggled with Einstein dominated competition before selling its factories over to local government control in 2427; and Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals, despite its skrell benefactors, purchased rights to examine the planet's biosphere from Einstein. The fact that their prosthetic limbs were originally designed on this planet has been stated to be a "happy coincidence" by its board. Due to the mass arrival of corporations, jobs were readily available - the planet was booming.<br />
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A massive migration wave of Einstein employees and their families to Aoyama made the city wrangle the spot of first in importance from the nominal capital of Suwon, to the point where the expatriate scientific community and their dependents outnumbered the local Japanese original colonists. The city quickly became known to Humanity as “Point Verdant”, the name assigned to the Terraneus Diagnostics laboratory in Aoyama, while the parent countries on Earth invested billions to capitalize on the success of their colonial project, to lift the planet into a modern world and reap the public relations benefits of their colony achieving a breakthrough in artificial intelligence.<br />
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The rapid expansion of Konyang's industries and cities had overtaxed the limited bureaucracy on the planet to the breaking point, and architects were in short supply. Urban planning on Konyang is estimated to be some of the worst in Alliance space outside of New Hai Phong as a result, with cities such as Point Verdant often having haphazard roads running through them and districts smashed together with no apparent rhyme or reason - a legacy of corporate jockeying for areas of interest, and the municipal corruption that came with it. There are countryside facilities originally utilized for drone research and retrieval that have, in recent years, fallen into disuse and disarray. Such facilities often dot the mountains and foothills of Konyang, slowly being overtaken by nature - sometimes with unfortunate results when these facilities have been improperly stripped of dangerous materials. The environment also suffered in areas where drones were found - jungles were cut or burnt away by corporations in order to get at the precious drones below, prefab buildings were orbitally dropped and erected, and landing zones were cut into the landscape itself.<br />
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The stormy tidal waves so infamous for tormenting the early colonists were tamed through the building of sea walls, a comprehensive road network linked the remote villages with the urban centers, and the city of Ganzaodeng was raised from the rocky desert. The Konyanger conglomerate PACHROM would mark the rise of the first native Chaebols, building shipyards, dams, hydroelectric plants and the first space fleet capable of ferrying enormous capacities of water across interstellar systems.<br />
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===The Positronic Integration | 2410s===<br />
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Soon enough, IPCs entered production on the planet, making Konyang one of the first places to embrace the positronic revolution. The limited resources saw higher prices, lessening the availability of domestically produced frames. Furthermore, the still rudimentary waterproofing technologies meant that IPCs could not work for long hours without shelter, ensuring that human jobs would remain safe from automation. When in the rest of Sol IPCs were produced en-masse for labor, Konyanger IPCs were more integrated in white-collar employment and indoors service-related work. Meanwhile, a growing media culture based on animation combined with the Konyanger recycle-friendly attitude, giving newer generations a fresh look on positronic intelligence, one that valued them as people rather than a disposable resource. The lack of widespread automation never brought the anti-synthetic sentiment so common in the rest of Sol, and IPCs in time became a unique cultural phenomenon in the colony’s urban centers.<br />
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Solarian laws governing the relations between IPCs and mankind were nominally enforced on Konyang, barring synthetics from gaining their own freedom, a fact which remained a thorn between the more liberal, younger Konyangers and the older generations. Einstein Engines allied with the Solarian governorship to press for the continuing status of Konyang as a colony, preventing elections and thus any liberal political influence from threatening the company’s grip on its synthetic workforce. This however, did not prevent Konyanger society to further integrate IPCs, even if the concept of universal citizenship for all synthetics was still far from publicly accepted. Aoyama was most receptive to the positronics, as a center of research and culture, with IPCs welcomed in people’s houses, treated like family and celebrated in festivals and even religious ceremonies. Suwon sentiment remained ambivalent, though many Solarian officials and naval officers expressed most severe concerns, in many cases pressing for crackdowns and questioning the morals of Konyanger citizens. The denizens of New Hong Kong and Ganzaodeng on the other hand, were most unhappy, with the powerful Chinese factory and shipyard labor unions remaining vocally opposed to IPC rights in the workplace, owing to their ties with the wider Solarian unions.<br />
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The profound effects of the emergence of this positronic culture were soon felt across the planet, change being heralded through a wave of demonstrations in mid to late 2412. High school and university students in Aoyama took to the streets to call for synthetic rights, in one of the few instances of pro-IPC disturbances on Solarian soil. In particular, the students called for the immediate emancipation of owned synthetics, marching from the main First Avenue down to the Governor's House and being joined by crowds of people and IPCs alike. The Aoyama Constabulary alongside Terraneus security forces were ordered to put a swift end to the march, resulting in the first major incident since the founding of the colony. Over 400 student injuries were recorded, the crowds responding with rocks and branches to the authorities’ tear gas and water cannons. 247 arrests were made that day, sparking additional outrage in the student movement as the ringleaders were tried as adults and given lengthy prison sentences. Smaller incidents were also noted in Suwon and Boryeong, marking 2412 as a year of upheaval and social change, laying the foundations for full IPC citizenship.<br />
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===Late Colonial Period | 2410s - 2440s===<br />
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As Konyang left behind the troubled ’10s and social peace returned through decrees permitting local city authorities to afford certain permissions for IPCs. This followed the final robotics' boom peak in the 2430s, seeing the planet’s GDP growth reach new levels. The colony’s industrial potential skyrocketed, with hundreds of hydroelectric dams, sea walls and shipyards creating thousands of new jobs in New Hong Kong, the new industrial core of Konyang. Labour relations shifted dramatically, as the new Hephaestus-pioneered industrial chassis enabled IPCs to work in the most difficult of conditions, sidelining and driving off the all powerful Gwongfu labor unions, with human employees forced into the urban centers and Ganzaodeng, contributing to a skyrocketing of the local IPC population in the prefecture.<br />
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Suwon saw a significant rise in business activity with the outside world, emboldening private ventures to the neighboring Frontier Alliance, bringing in massive profits from moss and entertainment exports. The animation industry reached new heights, with hundreds of new studios producing pioneering and high quality work, including classics like “One Day in My Life” and “Tomonomimi”, two of the most highly acclaimed works of media in recent Solarian memory. The entertainment sector brought new life to the Konyanger tourism industry as well, with more and more people rediscovering the distant hidden gem tucked deep in the fringes of the Alliance. The Suwon Stock Exchange was listed for the first time in the Chicago Financial Review, Sol’s most coveted investment periodical, as “Upcoming”, leading to billions of credits flowing in the country from abroad.<br />
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New chaebol conglomerates emerged, replacing even Einstein products with widely successful “Local, Cheaper and Better” campaigns. While Gwok Foods was making headlines in 2439 as the most successful Konyanger “IPC-inspired” exporter by yearly gross tonnage, the Ayame Motor Corporation created the first “completely Konyanger” 2-seat automobile designed for the cramped roads of Suwon and Point Verdant, becoming an instant hit. The Boryeong based Mujigae Publishing brought comics back into the youth’s hands, and Konymation had expanded to control cinemas, movie production studios, theme parks and restaurant chains in its ever expanding media empire.<br />
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===Independence and Present Day | 2462 - Present===<br />
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The Mars Violet Dawn catastrophe of 2462 signaled an era of widespread uncertainty and energy insecurity for the entirety of the Sol Alliance, with the Spur-wide phoron crisis exacerbating the situation for the Alliance’s Middle and especially Outer Ring colonies. A Konyanger recession in the late 2450s had already stretched the colonial government thin, with riots over the cost of living and unemployment in New Hong Kong and Suwon making national news for years on end. As the shaken corporations entered discussions on how they would survive the ever increasing phoron costs, it was made clear to everyone that the Alliance could not, and would not fund the refitting of the corporate fleets with the new Suzuki-Zhang Hammer Drive engine, threatening the complete cutoff of Konyang from outer space should the local Bluespace gate fail. Only a few Einstein vessels and the 58th Fleet stationed on the planet remained as the only reliable link between Konyang and the Spur.<br />
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The shortage soon hit the domestic market, leading to dangerous price increases for even the most essential of supplies. The average Konyanger saw their purchasing power plummet, as salaries remained stagnant in the face of a decreasing supply. The colonial Governor Hyun Kyung-Ho, turned to the only emergency option left, Earth. It was not the first time that Patriotic Aid was raised in China, Korea and Japan, though this time it proved most underwhelming. As the call for help fell on ears of men that could not even help their own economies, the trophy colony had to be abandoned to its own devices, with many in the East Asian public accusing Konyangers of greed and forgetting them in their apogee of financial success. With this last link to the past cut off, the question and possibility of independence soon started circling.<br />
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There was no time for serious debate however, with the Alliance being plunged into rebellion and collapse. On November 12, the 58th Fleet hastily departed Konyang, declaring a state of emergency in the system and abandoning the colonial government to its fate. Only elements of the Solarian Army and the Constabularies remained to maintain order, themselves being composed almost entirely of local Konyanger enlisted. The situation immediately turned into unrest, as public sentiment against the ineptitude of the Alliance boiled over into the streets. Massive student protests saw the storming of public buildings and central plazas in every major town and city, demanding a sharp reduction to the cost of living, IPC emancipation and a barring of the 58th Fleet from returning. Government reaction was mild, limited to the prevention of damages and protection of private property. Hyun Kyung-Ho was otherwise sympathetic to the students’ cause, sparking outrage within groups of Alliance-minded Army officers and Einstein corporate elites, who sought to prevent any secession of Konyang.<br />
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Thus, on November 15 2462, elements of the Army garrison under Lieutenant General Jiang Hongbing mobilized against the wishes of the Governor, taking up key positions in Suwon and Point Verdant. The mutinous 8th Sappers infiltrated the historic SUWON beacon telecommunications complex, preparing the country for a silent coup and preventing any long range communications with Sol. Jiang Hongbing, inspired by actions of mutinous admirals, took it upon himself to restore Konyang to the Alliance by marching the Army into the streets. While some of the formations under his command were willing to participate, the vast majority refused to bear arms against the Konyanger Governor or the student movements. In the following day, an internal power struggle saw many officers confined to their quarters, with Army hardliners being arrested, chased off or even assaulted in their own barracks as a loyalist armored brigade blocked access to the Governor’s House, preventing Hongbing’s men from touching Hyun Kyung-Ho.<br />
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With the coup’s inglorious end visible, the Governor’s staff were racing into negotiations with diplomatic officers from Coalition of Colonies still in the country for an express accession into the Coalition, following Konyang’s independence. Jiang Hongbing’s associates surrendered, himself fleeing into the thick jungles of Boryeong Prefecture, declaring a patriotic struggle in the Alliance’s name before soon being betrayed and confined at the 58th base’s Brig. On November 24 2462, telecommunications were restored, and Konyanger independence was broadcast to the world. The country’s preliminary accession into the Coalition was soon after announced, turning a new leaf in Konyang’s history. While the news was received with muted reaction from a confused Alliance government with more pressing matters to handle, the secession of Konyang was a huge blow to the three parent countries. After Governor Hyun Kyung-Ho assembled the nation’s intellectuals, economic and political figures, it was decided that he would remain in place as independent Konyang’s first Governor to organize free elections and set up the foundations for a democratic state.<br />
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Now, as a free Konyang comes out to the world stage, strong government initiative has seen its large synthetic factories nationalized, rapidly introducing legislation to establish the relationship with Einstein Engines. While they still are the dominating megacorporation on the planet, Einstein has lost most of its heavy industry, though still retaining the important research facilities around the vaults, as well as a good portion of software and positronic brain creation.<br />
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==Location and Environment==<br />
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===The Haneunim System===<br />
The Haneunim System, centered around the yellow star it is named for, Haneunim, contains four major celestial bodies, including the planet of Konyang. The whole system bears evidence of ancient mining operations, missing an asteroid belt to separate the inner and outer system with what few rocks remain being mostly picked clean of minerals. The innermost planet is known as Huozhu and remains practically inaccessible due to the scorching heat of Haneunim. Following it is Hwanung , an insignificant dwarf planet believed to have maintained a thin arid atmosphere before most of its mass was artificially stripped away. The third planet in the System is Konyang, accompanied by its lifeless moon of Qixi. Shiranui, a blue gas giant with a ring, is the outermost planet from Haneunim. An asteroid belt, far to the outskirts and composed mostly of ice, forms a ring around the entire system, although this remains largely unexploited by both the Konyanger government and local corporations. It is instead the stomping ground of both refugees fleeing the Sol Wildlands, and the pirates that seek to prey on them.<br />
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==Geography==<br />
[[File:Konyang.png|An image of Konyang, displaying mossy oceans and algae-covered water as the face of the planet. |thumb]]<br />
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==Environment==<br />
Konyang features a highly atypical environment for a habitable planet: it is entirely freshwater. The surface of the planet is primarily water, with estimates placing upwards of 88% of the planet as covered in water. What is not covered by freshwater are the islands of Konyang, where the vast majority of its population lives. These islands follow a general pattern: a small coastal area and a large mountain range ringing the island. The freshwater oceans of Konyang feature a remarkable diverse biosphere, and Konyang underwater flora, such as freshwater moss, is often used in the planet's native dishes and exported offworld, as far afield as Sol and Tau Ceti. Konyang is defined by two seasons: wet, lasting nine months, and dry, lasting three months.<br />
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The coastal regions of Konyang represent the smallest regions of its islands, but contain upwards of 90% of the planet's population. Often called the "coastal jungles" of Konyang, these areas are extremely wet - flooding is an issue in some areas, though the bulk of populated and urban areas are protected by extensive flood protection infrastructure, primarily lengthy complexes of walls. Coastal areas feature a wealth of plant and animal life, both of which have been put under stress by the rapid expansion of Konyang's cities.<br />
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Although Konyang’s coastal waters are often tinted green from moss, even more so than its oceans, harvesting and cleanup efforts along the coasts of the main and important islands have resulted in some sections of the planet appearing blue. These areas are often exploited for settlements and as tourist destinations for their scenic looks, while dedicated seaweed and algae farms dot the planet, providing an income for local villages and traditional producers. The most famous Konyanger food exporter, Go-Go Gwok!, has the largest involvement in the moss and seaweed industry.<br />
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The inland mountain ranges of Konyang can be up to several kilometers in height in some areas, with smaller foothills featuring some rare settlements leading up to them. These ranges, which lack valuable minerals completely due to Glorsh-era mining, are the reason for Konyang's jungles - they form an effective rain shadow. Some mountains have what is assumed to be collapsed mines in them, deactivated drones scattered throughout.<br />
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A phenomenon unique to the easternmost islands of the Geinjohada district, inland deserts are created due to the rain shadow caused by the surrounding mountain ranges. These are the least populated areas of the planet. Extraordinarily dry, little grows or lives in these environments. Rare Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals facilities can be found in this area, taking advantage of the isolation and relatively sterile environment that the inland deserts offer.<br />
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Lastly, the oceans of Konyang are regularly stormy, the large waves being harnessed for their energy in electricity production at numerous such outposts, scattered throughout the unpopulated islets in the farthest and most secluded areas.<br />
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===Flora and Fauna===<br />
Wildlife on Konyang is a peculiar mix of its original environment and the thousands of invasive species introduced by Human colonization. Species introduced in the initial colonization of the planet include huge herbivores and peaceful, if ecologically destructive, wildlife. Additionally, the large oceans are host to an uncountable number of species of fish, crustaceans and aquatic molluscs, with many being unique to their region of origin. Flora on Konyang is among its most famed aspects, spearheaded by the mossy shores and overgrowth which covers the vast majority of its visible terrain. All plant life which survives on Konyang must survive the extremely damp environment, and as such either thrives in the water, or is capable of moving away from it. Konyang's waters are famously covered in green moss and seaweed, giving it its signature color when viewed from orbit.<br />
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Some examples of unique flora and fauna are:<br />
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'''Shelfers'''<br />
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In the marsh and lowlands of Konyang's algae coasts resides an invasive species of large omnivores known as '''Shelfers.''' These are gluttonous moss-feasting beasts, with a distinct six-legged and bloated appearance. They are excellent swimmers, owed to webbed joints and a wedge shaped, slick head. From this, it uses a set of large protruding teeth to scrape moss and undersea growths. This creature is endangered, and displayed as a national animal thanks to its unique appearance. Originally a danger to unprepared colonization, these gained a reputation for its tendency to attack colonists.<br />
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These were first encountered by colonists who had shipped wildlife to and from Arusha, where escaped subjects managed to reproduce- over the years becoming a cultural icon due to their miraculous beneficial place they have in Konyang's ecosystem.<br />
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'''Konyanger Jeweler Cockatoo'''<br />
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Known for its affinity to decorate its nesting grounds with surface-level pearls and gems of all sorts is an opportunistic carnivore, the '''Jeweler Cockatoo.''' This large avian is an offshoot of the Earth parrot, bred originally to “liven the landscape” of Konyang’s dreary inner mountainous lands. Eventually, with the assistance of high-level genetic modification, they grew to giant proportions whilst maintaining the health and lifestyle of a standard - ''if highly dangerous'' - parrot. <br />
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Where small patches of forest and barrens clash, these birds thrive and craft beautiful roosts in the relative safety of open fields. In these fields, diminutive predators avoid the large avian’s glare (or don’t, and are frequently preyed upon.) The Jeweler Cockatoo possesses two sharp talons on one digit of each of its feet, and a short - but unbelievably sharp beak, refined further by its tendency to dig. The wingspan of these birds can grow up to fifteen feet.<br />
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The Jeweler Cockatoo is the national bird of Konyang, with many stylized imagery depicting the bird in some shape or form.<br />
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'''Glittering Konyang Moss'''<br />
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Found in vast plains of coastal territories in excess is the overflowing, yet precious resource of '''Konyang moss.''' One of its primary exports, this barely-tapped commodity retains a huge capacity to feed Konyang’s already sturdy ecosystem, and the billions which reside upon it, and more to export. The evolutionary process which grew this mystical, shimmering moss is a mystery, however its luster and fields of green it generates has a wonderful impact on sustaining Konyang’s moist, overgrown and greenery-rich habitat. <br />
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Konyang moss is pivotal to its moving industries, and even after the robotics boom, it remains a stable source of incoming development for the since-burgeoning planet. The moss’ nutritional properties have been highly studied in recent decades. Its rapid pace of growth is exclusive to Konyang’s ecological circumstances, with everything from subterranean heat, to the algae present in its beautiful green seas factoring in.<br />
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==Economy==<br />
While young, the nation of Konyang boasts a powerful regional economy built upon decades of trade with both the Alliance and various Coalition partners. A developed country, Konyang manages to surpass its near total lack of ore with robust exports of foodstuff and energy, a strong shipping industry and a powerful robotics sector.<br />
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===Raw Materials===<br />
[[File:Konyang dam.png|thumb|Dams and sea walls are a common sight on Konyang, used to protect cities and population centres from floods and tsunamis, as well as to exploit the violent waves for electricity.]]<br />
Konyang's freshwater oceans were perhaps the largest boon to the starting colonists, and continues to play a substantial role behind the planet's exports. Fishing provides for a large aspect of the domestic economy, with millions of fishing boats and trawlers scouring the shores and oceans for all kinds of fish, crustaceans and other aquatic creatures, of which a complete list doesn't exist. Such is the biodiversity in Konyang's waters, that each region has its own fish markets which serve clients all over the planet and the Spur. Besides fishing, Konyang's biggest aquatic produce in terms of volume belongs to its enormous seaweed and moss harvesting industries. Entire ships are purpose-built for collecting wild greenery which floats on the high seas and the bays of Konyang, bringing in billions in offworld exports and domestic sales. The harvesting of moss is not exclusive to the sea and the aquatic farms either, as many edible varieties are collected inland, both in the planet's jungles and mountain ranges. Konyanger moss is Spur-renowned thanks to powerful marketing campaigns and the spread of the planet's cuisine.<br />
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With tremendously stormy wet seasons lasting most of the year, it is no surprise that Konyanger corporations have attempted and managed to harness the energy of the wind, waves and waters of the planet. Electricity is generated through a network of dams, hydroelectric plants, wave power stations and tidal power stations, all dotted across the vast shores and oceans of Konyang. The electricity produced is then either stored in super capacitors, or is directly wired inland through thick underwater cables, catering to the needs of virtually every power grid on the globe. Much of it is also transported on board space freighters lined with rows of large batteries, ready to make the journey to Alliance and Coalition worlds as part of the lucrative electricity export industry.<br />
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Lastly, Konyang excells in the export of water and timber. The continent-spanning untouched jungles provide an excellent source of wood for foreign markets as well as domestic construction, of which there is very heavy use in lieu of metal structures. The freshwater is also extremely easy to chemically filter, skipping any desalination process before being bottled or shipped as-is on board of one of many of Konyang's water barges; large hollow space vessels with tankers and pools for water storage.<br />
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===Maritime Shipping===<br />
Surface shipping is another one of the main forces behind Konyang's domestic market economy, and an inseparable part of the nation's maritime culture. The docks and shipyards of New Hong Kong are the beating heart of the sector, which provides employment to more than 20% of the entire planet's population. Entire towns were formed and dedicated to housing the laborers and their families close to the coast, and many islands subsist entirely off of seamen's salaries and work at nearby electricity stations. Surface shipping, while slower, is a lot more economical for planetary moving of goods across the continents and islands of Konyang, being preferred to airlifting or orbital shuttling. Aside from the creation of jobs and the transportation of goods, Konyang's shipping industry produces excellent sailors who can rival those of planets such as Europa, many of whom eventually transition to space.<br />
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===Robotics and Services===<br />
Ever since the robotics boom, Konyang has become a major player in the export and development of IPCs and everything surrounding them. Each year, the most cutting edge technologies catered to the improvement of the life of synthetics are released by Konyanger software companies, often to critical acclaim. This is because of the the substantial positronic population, free and eager to spend on such innovations that allow them to experience the world in a more human-like fashion. When it comes to the export of IPCs, Einstein Engines remains the prime manufacturer of chassis and positronic brains, which are shipped abroad without being activated. The practice, while putting Konyang on the map as one of the big regional producers of synthetics, is a hotly contested area between deeply entrenched corporate interests and an increasingly politically aware IPC populace. Non-positronic robotics are a separate, but once significant part of the economy, with Konyang having hoeld high places in the spur leaderboards for the making of robots, mechs, pAIs and automated systems. This sector however, took a major hit as the robotics boom slowly deflated, leaving behind abandoned industrial complexes and derelict factories.<br />
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The nation's service sector has to be one of the biggest ones, contributing a sizeable portion of the country's Gross Domestic Product. Many of the companies listed on the Suwon Stock Exchange are everything from financial consultation firms, to insurance agencies, housed in every majpr city's financial district. Skyscrapers and office complexes in downtown Suwon, Point Verdant and New Hong Kong are a daily reminder of the office life millions of Konyangers live, and many parents dream of their child being able to one day find employment in a top law firm or such. While mostly concentrated in the domestic market, many of these companies have expanded their services abroad, building a reputation of Konyanger reliability and impeccable work.<br />
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===Konyanger Corporations===<br />
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In terms of the traditional megacorporations, the undoubted hegemon remains Einstein Engines, entrenched in the planet's life since the beginning of Konyang's colonization. The megacorporation owns a number of subsidiaries on the planet in many different sectors, most notably, Terraneus Diagnostics, which regularly bankrolls and invests in government initiatives in exchange for their continuous presence. It retains the original research facilities and control over the vaults, even if IPC production and exports are now handled by the Konyang Robotics Corporation, a public company in which Einstein controls a 49% stake. The Terraneus facilities on the planet mainly handle shell research and positronic brain production for export to the Coalition, while they occasionally butt heads with Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals in the realm of IPC research. Zeng-Hu has the second-largest megacorporate presence, mainly in biosphere research and sales of pharmaceuticals. Despite this, local conglomerates generally dominate the country’s financial sector, commanding the government’s cooperation and good graces in order to keep a stable economy. Upon achieving independence, Konyang has managed to maintain a strong presence of homegrown corporations in the fields of agriculture, media, energy and consumer goods.<br />
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'''PACHROM'''<br />
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A chemical and engineering corporation, PACHROM builds, maintains and manages eighty percent of all private dams, hydroelectric plants and seawalls on Konyang, as well as engaging in the field of chemicals and plastics production. Headed by Park Moon-soo, the business mogul is vying for influence with the government as indispensable to the nation’s energy output and defence against floods and natural disasters, making the “Pachrom Parks” one of the richest and most powerful business dynasties on the planet. Headquartered in central Suwon, the bulk of PACHROM’s operations are located in diasporic, uninhabited islands in the middle of the world’s oceans, where hundreds of organic and synthetic workmen toil daily to run the water powered electricity plants in extremely dangerous conditions.<br />
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The company’s notorious reputation for neglecting the safety of its employees and the environmental disregard for waste disposal from its plastics factories has been a big stain the Parks have struggled to wash off. While their ties to both the Alliance administration and the Konyang government have proven instrumental in their ability to dodge damning legal action, demonstrations of public outcry are a common feature in and around the street opposite the PACHROM office complex. To counter this, public relations campaigns are a constant focus, with tens of millions being spent in portraying them in a positive light. Charities are a large part of the Park family’s social presence, sponsoring public works and offering scholarships mainly in the Boryeong and New Hong Kong prefectures, where the majority of employees originate.<br />
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Often finding itself without funds from Unity Station, the colonial administration would commission PACHROM in the form of lucrative contracts for the construction of dams and power stations, allowing the utilisation of synthetics and IPC for the dangerous labour required. Due to society’s favourable opinion towards positronic intelligence, the multitude of cases of IPC fatalities would be swept under the rug with government assistance, creating a culture of tolerance towards lacklustre safety features and general disregard. Today, PACHROM’s future remains uncertain as the newly independent state of Konyang wishes tends to distance itself from its shaky past, a fact indicated by the recent awarding of the Kaneyama nuclear plant to the public company GON-ENE.<br />
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'''Gwok Group'''<br />
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Founded in the early 2410s with the name Hyeonsang Foods, the precursor to today’s multinational food conglomerate was the first attempt at commercialising Konyang’s seaweed and moss both for export and internal consumption. Initially finding limited success due to an overly competitive local market and foreign consumers' reluctance to the Konyanger novelty, the company's defining moment arrived during the robotics boom, launching them from mediocrity into the billion credit business stage.<br />
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As Einstein Engines staff poured into Point Verdant, Hyeonsang secured a contract from the megacorporation's local branch for providing meals and miscellaneous catering to workers and research staff. The once alienated Einstein employees would soon come around, praising the brand for its flavourful seasoning and convenience, eventually spreading the word to Einstein facilities and back home. By the late 40s, Hyeonsang was on the track of significant financial success, having secured a large foothold in the foreign dominated central districts of Point Verdant.<br />
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Rebranding into the more consumer friendly “Gwok” name in 2452, the company’s reputation abroad led to the opening of regional branches in the Solarian middle and core worlds, generating an increasingly massive amount of income, used for an aggressive takeover of the local Konyanger market. By buying off competitors, monopolising the moss and seaweed industry and introducing new marketing, Gwok’s domestic success was soon guaranteed as the primary supplier of supermarkets. In 2454 the IPC Gwok-0783, until then a senior executive and the face of the company as the main influencer of the rebrand, assumed direct control as CEO of the conglomerate thus becoming the first IPC in charge of a billion credit corporation in Sol space. The following years would see the consolidation of all affiliated assets and filial companies under an umbrella Gwok Group, topping the charts and establishing a farming, food and restaurant chain empire.<br />
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'''Konymation'''<br />
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Konymation represents the peak of the Konyanger animated media scene, being by far the most successful and most well known studio in the country, with a Spur-wide fame. It arose in the early days of the robotics boom, creating a resurgency of animations for both children and adults. While the industry was almost non-existent and cheap Solarian cartoons were the norm, a group of inspired artists came together to animate and direct the first feature-length production from Konyang, using native voice actors and a brand new artstyle of their own. The result was "One Day in my Life", a slice of life film following the daily routine of an IPC secretary in a human-dominated world, becoming an instant hit with both domestic and foreign audiences. Since then, Konymation rose to become the largest studio of quality animations, creating films and series for all ages and of all genres. Such was the success, that any animated pieces from Konyang have passed into the public consciousness simply as "Konymations", referred to as such in both the planet and abroad. Since their foundation, the studio has developed into a media conglomerate, buying out holoscreen channels, online platforms, news networks and more.<br />
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'''Mujigae Publishing'''<br />
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The biggest publishing house, Mujigae is to the comic book industry what Konymation is to animation. Having created thousands of interesting and touching comic series, Mujigae is credited with bringing paper back into the hands of millions of Konyangers, in an age where digital platforms have become the default for nearly everything in life. Many of Mujigae's works find great demand abroad as well as at home, with the company being known for their efforts to constantly seek out and recruit new artists with fresh ideas. A plethora of published series often find themselves being adapted into the holoscreen in lucrative partnerships with Konymation, as well as the other way around. Additionally, Mujigae's philanthropic work cannot go unmentioned; millions of credits have found their way to various charities on Konyang, primarily those regarding the children, the money drawn from art festivals and comicons that are hosted annually, often with the participation of the Ministry of Culture. <br />
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'''Konyang Robotics Corporation'''<br />
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The Konyang Robotics Corporation, or KRC as is more commonly known, is the country's largest government-controlled company centered around the manufacture, maintenance and welfare of the nation's positronic population. Borrowing heavily from Einstein know-how and infrastructure, it originated from the nationalization of Einstein and Terraneus IPC factories, with the majority of their employees swapping over to a government payroll. Einstein Engines controls 49% of the shares of the company, lending it tremendous behind-the-scenes influence on Konyang's synthetic population.<br />
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The primary function of the KRC is the production, storage and activation of IPC citizens. A very politically and socially sensitive topic, great care is placed by the government through the Ministry of Health and Positronic Affairs to meticulously calculate and order the amount of yearly activations, so as to maintain the Human-IPC ratio and meet the demands of the job market. To that effect, the KRC also acts as a sort of "school" for the newly activated IPC citizens, with special orientation camps where synthetics are taught about Konyanger society before released to the world.<br />
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Furthermore, the KRC acts as the primary health provider for Konyanger IPCs, with clinics and hospitals situated in every town and city, as well as strategically placed in certain villages in the countryside. Thousands of roboticists, engineers and software technicians are employed by the KRC to act as the equivalents of surgeons, physicians, nurses and paramedics for the IPC population, who are afforded universal healthcare through the KRC. Appointment times are dependent on location and the capacity of the clinic or hospital, with many in more remote areas having to wait months for limb replacements and other, more heavy duty needs that cannot be met by their local KRC center.<br />
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'''GON-ENE'''<br />
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GON-ENE is a newly formed, state-controlled energy utilities company, created following the announcement of the Kaneyama Nuclear Power Plant. Perceived as a direct competitor to PACHROM, GON-ENE has been planned to expand into hydroelectric and wave power, giving the government a greater control of the nation's power grid and cutting back reliance on privately-owned sector, though complete autarky is off the table for at least many decades.<br />
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==Government==<br />
Konyang is organized as a federal parliamentary democracy headed by a ceremonial President, the former colonial governor Hyun Kyung-Ho being elected to the position after independence. The prime minister is elected by the citizenry every four years, and is the leader of the governing party in the Parliament of Konyang. The current Prime Minister is Myeong Myung-Dae.<br />
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Due to the geographical isolation of many of its islands, its cities developed as mostly independent regions. As such, it is now organized along the same lines, the planet being divided into five largely autonomous Prefectures, each headed by an elected Governor and a government-appointed Prefect for federal matters. Although there are laws at the federal level, prefectures are given a great deal of autonomy when running day to day affairs, each having its own legislature and executive. For instance, each region often maintains its own public services, with the central authorities only stepping in when the local government has proven unable to meet the standards set by federal law or the constitution. The most prominent piece of federal legislation in effect is the equality of synthetics and organics.<br />
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The legislative branch is comprised of the Parliament of Konyang, seated in the capital city of Suwon. Elections are held every four years with parties contesting the 300 seats. Members of Parliament are elected on a prefectural level, each prefecture assigned a fixed number of seats based on population. This arrangement, while seen as satisfactory by the majority, is regularly criticised by the politically active IPC community in the country as “biased and unfair”.<br />
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Planetary politics are found on both a national and prefectural level, with almost every party running in local and national elections. Polarisation is fairly limited, the vast majority of Konyangers rejecting the extreme views put forward by radical political movements in the country that tend to be marginalised. IPC politicians do exist and are found in every major party, though most can be seen sitting with the National Party of Konyang, a pro-synthetic movement, run by and representing the interests of the IPC population, currently leading the opposition with a large 32% of the vote.<br />
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===Konyang and the Coalition===<br />
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Shortly after its independence in late 2462, Konyang successfully applied for membership in the Coalition of Colonies in order to gain steady trade partners and better protect itself after the sudden collapse of the Sol Alliance. Readily accepted owing to their strategic position and innovative robotics industry, the planet’s relationship with its new partners quickly flourished based off of a mutually beneficial exchange of resources and information - Konyanger engineers, scientists, and technical designs now finding themselves prized throughout the Coalition. Common goods traded between the planets include vast amounts of moss, seaweed, and algae to feed lesser-off colonies, particularly in the Frontier, in exchange for raw materials. The planet’s military also finds itself frequently consulted when dealing with border patrols in the Solarian Wildlands, owing to their familiarity with the rest of the Alliance.<br />
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Despite the rosy relationship Konyang now shares with the Coalition, the planet has refused to compromise on the topic of citizenship, insisting that Coalition citizenship only grants temporary access to the planet, the local government being given the authority to bar or allow all entrants. This move has been cited by observers as driven by the sudden influx of refugees and IPCs from the Sol Alliance, while others cite Konyanger cultural closed-off attitudes as the government’s motives. <br />
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Consequently, outside of tourists and refugees, Konyang only accepts residents and citizens under the following criteria:<br />
* Residents must have a work visa, only furnished by online, off-planet request when sponsored by a Konyang-based employer, or have family on the planet.<br />
* In order to apply for citizenship, a resident needs to have lived on Konyang for 10 years, be financially self-sufficient, and have committed no felonies.<br />
* Organics and IPCs are equally eligible to apply for residency or citizenship.<br />
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===Military===<br />
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Konyang’s military, also known as the Konyang Armed Forces, was first formed shortly after the colony’s independence from personnel of the former Solarian garrison. As a result, it carries a lot of the traditions of the Solarian Armed Forces. Bolstered by conscription laws requiring both organic and synthetic citizens one year of mandatory service, the KAF possesses Army, Navy and Aerospace branches. IPCs are actively recruited and accepted into the military, forming both their own and deployed in mixed units. This segregation is justified by the government as based solely on the differentiating capabilities, logistical needs and skills between man and machine.<br />
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That claim does hold true to an extent, with IPCs taking a more active role in special forces formations, dealing with operations requiring levels of precision and focus that artificial intelligence can easily provide. A famous example is the army’s Mechatronic Corps, an elite unit utilising large, leftover battle mechs retrofitted for a pair of pilots. Such a force is unique in the Coalition, and is often used abroad in operations under broader CoC military command. Mixed infantry units of conscripts do exist, fielded in jungle patrol tasks or assigned garrison duty.<br />
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Notably for a 25th century military, the Navy maintains a very large aquatic force which it uses to patrol the vast oceans of the planet. Regularly described as more of a coast guard than a military arm, it is more geared for domestic policing than combat, consisting mostly of ships acting as launching points for many smaller, coast guard type vessels that patrol the vast expanse of the planet’s waterways and launch military aircraft. Nevertheless, it provides important services with its multiple telecommunication, radar and island outposts, providing crucial meteorological information for everyday seafaring and flood prevention on a planet where storms and extreme weather are the norm.<br />
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The Konyang Aerospace Forces perform both atmospheric and orbital operations with their doctrine clearly influenced by former Solarian officers within their ranks. Their fleet consist of obsolete vessels donated by Coalition planets, partially brought up to a modern standard by the planet’s technology and manufacturing sector. In 2465, the KASF’s main tasks include protecting the system from pirates and policing the large influx of refugees from the Human Wildlands, regularly pushing them to other planets within the Coalition as per Konyang’s strict migration laws.<br />
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===Crime and Law Enforcement===<br />
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====National Police====<br />
[[File:Konyanger Police Ranks.png|thumb|In order to organize the National Police and smooth cooperation between prefectures, a unified rank structure was adopted shortly after its formation.]]<br />
Despite its federal nature, the main law enforcement agency on the planet is the National Police, formed after Konyang’s independence from the merging of a number of local and specialised agencies under the then Solarian authority. One major change since then has been the introduction of synthetic officers in all positions and ranks, while also creating special divisions suited best for them. Police gear remains rather antiquated for the era, the force still using old Solarian equipment and stocks from the colonial garrison, meaning that much of the tactics and thinking remain unchanged. Considered tame by Alliance standards, the National Police places an emphasis on preventative policing, building rapport with local communities, and relying on a sense of civic duty from the populace to perform its duties. Despite this, the National Police has nonetheless received criticism for occasional incidents of corruption and brutality, mostly against synthetic citizens. This is more common in remote departments and conservative prefectures, where the sudden inclusiveness of synthetic officers with equal pay and opportunities is seen as a threat. Such incidents aside, government efforts for the modernisation of the National Police are ongoing.<br />
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The police is subject to the Ministry of Public Safety in Suwon and is organised at the national level, with local departments answering to the assigned hierarchy in their prefecture. Special divisions are deployed to deal with various policing duties, their size ranging from a whole new branch to Special Robotics detachments specialising in detainment of volatile synthetic suspects. The largest of these subdivisions and arguably the most important, the Coast Guard is the maritime arm of the National Police, operating a fleet of shore and sea patrol vessels in their mission to enforce the law at the huge array of islands and in Konyang’s waters. As the planet is surrounded by oceans, the Coast Guard has proven itself essential to the battle against smuggling and piracy while also assuming search and rescue duties during flooding, tsunamis and other catastrophes. The National Police has also gained Coalition-wide acclaim for its Special Robotics Division - a task force known for its expertise in detaining IPC without causing permanent damage.<br />
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====Organised Crime====<br />
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=====Benevolent Guild=====<br />
The Benevolent Guild is a criminal organisation operating primarily within the decrepit, dark shadows of New Hong Kong. Originating as a mutual aid society for low income and forced penal colonists shipped into New Hong Kong by the Alliance government, it developed into a ruthless crime syndicate with strong ties to the local lower class community. From the start, the tightly knit communal and familial ties have played an important role in preserving the gang’s power and shielding them from police action. Only in recent years has any meaningful progress been made, the allocation of governmental resources and the increasingly violent and profit-oriented tactics of the Guild having alienated much of the younger generation, chipping away at the once widely popular support.<br />
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Starting with extortion and loan sharking, the Benevolent Guild rapidly expanded into gambling, drugs and violent crime such as kidnapping both in New Hong Kong and in New Kowloon. It is not uncommon for synthetics that find themselves victims of the group’s loan shark tactics to be ‘collected’ as collateral damage and subsequently carted off to whichever corner of the Orion Spur where their new owners await them usually at a far cheaper rate than elsewhere. One of the few institutions on Konyang refusing to admit synthetics owing to a deeply conservative and spiritually esoteric internal ideology, a pragmatist outlook often compels them to deal with and even cooperate with IPC politicians, police and rival gangs. Connections with criminal organisations in the wider Spur have been confirmed to exist, as various crime syndicates in Xanu, New Hai Phong and Luna are known to be in connection with the Benevolent Guild.<br />
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=====5-Cheung=====<br />
Emerging as one of the strongest IPC/organic street gangs of Suwon, the 5-Cheung numbers in the thousands of members in the cities of the Suwon and Point Verdant prefectures. The organisation’s origin as a loose collective of delinquents and fringe elements has since developed into a nationwide crime family with a powerful hierarchy fielding biker gangs and thugs to enforce their tight grip on the underworld. With a black repertoire of gambling, extortion, money laundering and narcotics, the 5-Cheung is considered a main rival to the Benevolent Guild of New Hong Kong, the two frequently coming to blows in a series of wars and uneasy truces over control of turf and general competition.<br />
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An open secret in the country’s political sphere has the 5-Cheung profit lucratively from corruption in the highest levels of government and police. During the Solarian era, prominent politicians employed protection from the 5-Cheung, soliciting their services in voter swaying, intimidation of opposition members and violent disruption of rallies and demonstrators. This has given the gang a justified reputation for being the political soldiers of ruling dynasties and representing the authorities in the underworld and on the street in exchange for immunity from prosecution. Following Konyang’s independence, the reformed National Police retained a virtually unchanged staff while the nation’s same prominent political families, now unshackled from Alliance oversight, enjoy even more freedom. As such, it is safe to say that 5-Cheung’s entrenched position will continue to remain untouched aside from the occasional drug bust and arrest of low level members.<br />
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=====Sea Bandits=====<br />
Although both the previous colonial administration and the nascent Konyanger Armed Forces and Coast Guard have tried to stamp out piracy, the sheer expanse of the planet means that groups of what the authorities call “sea bandits” continue to infest the waters and orbit of Konyang. Ranging from small motor boats launched from fishing villages with nothing more than an antique rifle, to retrofitted probes salvaged from the refugee waves pouring into the system, piracy is one of the most pressing social and security issues faced by the newly formed nation.<br />
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Individual pirate groups usually number no greater than twenty people but the Sea Bandits as a whole operate as a wider criminal network inclusive of individuals and crews from all over the planet. By coordinating their activities and intelligence through encrypted sites, the organisation manages to both evade and stay one step ahead of the authorities. Most of their activities take the form of kidnapping, armed robbery of craft and hijacking unescorted seafarers, while admittedly avoiding the busiest and well guarded sealanes and locations. The most audacious raid by the Sea Bandits to date involved the boarding and ransoming of a cruise ship by the use of an unregistered freighter. Although only circumstantial evidence has been uncovered, Golden Deep Zaibatsu have also been accused of working with Sea Bandit groups by launching probes full of narcotics, to be recovered by the pirates.<br />
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==Culture==<br />
Konyang’s culture has been shaped by its East Asian Earther heritage, unique status as a colony with little to no resources, and as the birthplace of positronics. Konyanger society is often described as closed-off, with many unspoken social norms that vary from prefecture to prefecture.<br />
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Key social norms that are shared in Konyang’s culture are Harmony, Reciprocity, and Face. Often derided as “meekness”, Harmony refers to enforcing unity and conformity within society. The specific manifestations vary from prefecture to prefecture, but in general, individuals who disrupt a sense of peace can face social ostracization. For instance, explicit disagreement such as using the word “no” is considered impolite, and a non-answer is often far more acceptable. Harmony also refers to a person’s social role; respect should be shown to people of a higher status, usually along traditional lines such as age, profession, and experience. <br />
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Reciprocity is based on the idea that a good turn should lead to another. This norm leads to the development of tightly knit social networks, where Konyangers are expected to look out for each other in all spheres of life, be they personal, professional, or political. It is believed by some Konyangers that the cultivation of these values in their IPC citizens is partly responsible for the close integration they presently share with organics.<br />
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Tying these social norms together is Face, a catch-all term for a person’s pride, social perception, prestige, and reputation. In Konyang, a person’s “face” is increased when they can uphold social norms and preserve harmony. It can also be bolstered in other ways, such as by a more reputable person’s endorsement. Face is regarded as incredibly important for all interactions as a loss of face can result in social isolation, or in the case of business, a loss of opportunities, until such time that “face” can be regained.<br />
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Formerly part of the Outer Colonies, outsider influence on the planet’s culture was largely limited to Solarian navy personnel and their families until The Robotics Boom in the late 2400s to 2430s affected the cultural makeup of the planet significantly. Large numbers of workers, scientists, and engineers were brought to study and exploit the discovery of alien robotics, bringing their traditions with them. Although some left with the end of the Robotics Boom, expatriate communities have formed, often staying in close groups, accepted by Konyanger society, but not as Konyangers themselves with terms like “Coalition-Konyanger” being used.<br />
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The world’s entertainment industry is quite developed and popular within the Coalition. Consumed mostly in the cities, animations are the most viewed entertainment media produced and aired on Konyang, many locals even preferring them to regular films. By far the most famous and successful studio, Konymation, remains a staple in everyday life, employing thousands throughout the planet in drawing, voicing and animating high budget movies and series of all kinds and genres. Konyanger animations are also popular in many neighbouring Coalition and Sol worlds, while generally finding themselves regarded as an exotic niche the further one gets. More conventional entertainment, especially Solarian in origin, is mainstream in Point Verdant. The city’s roots as a settlement for Einstein Engines and other companies’ employees has resulted in the import and establishment of foreign cultural elements, cuisine and ways to pass the time.<br />
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The primary language spoken in Konyang is a dialect of Sol Common known as Konyang Common. It derives loanwords from many languages, such as Freespeak, in particular. The vast amount of technology present in the planet, as well as the unique nature of communities means a Konyangers can get by speaking only a single language fluently, relying on computer translation to make up the difference. Other common languages on the planet include Freespeak and Tradeband, brought by decades of contact and the Robotics Boom, respectively. '''Most IPC citizens on Konyang are also programmed with Encoded Audio Language, although its usage is discouraged when among organics.'''<br />
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===Cuisine===<br />
The primary diet of Konyangers consists of moss, seaweed and fish, with farms and pastures on land being rare due to the thick jungle. Konyang's moss is either harvested in the wild, grown in "natural" hydrofarms, or grown synthetically in bioplants. The moss itself is said to change its taste depending on the environment in which it is grown, and natural moss from the coasts around Konyang's islands is highly prized. Exports of moss and seaweed are a very lucrative business, held primarily by the galaxy-famous Go-Go Gwok! brand. Many workers, however, must make do with hydrofarm moss at best, and synthetic substitutes at worst. Konyang's fish - quite diverse, due to its freshwater environments - are also often consumed on the planet, with many being exported as luxury food as far afield as Venus and Tau Ceti. More conventional but water-intensive crops such as rice and other tropical fruits are also grown to a certain extent but are considered a rarity.<br />
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The planet is also home to a thriving beverages industry, with local varieties of algae providing the basis of a light but thick alcoholic drink colloquially known as “Nong jiu” domestically and abroad. The wide selection of produce on the planet however means more traditional drinks are produced, typically drawing from their Earther roots and commonly based on rice. Some of these drinks are exported by local businesses such as Go-Go Gwok! while Zeng-Hu has wrestled to control some of these brands in an attempt to stop them from competing with their own lineups.<br />
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====Synthetic Cuisine====<br />
Synthetic-unique cuisine is an unusual case in the Spur, but not for Konyang. Here, robots utilize gustatorial implants to - if inefficiently - consume, or at least “taste” food regularly. Indeed, there is an entire market for synthfood where robots can enjoy their own form of taste, texture and uniquely perceptive flavor for foods. Mostly, synthfood is described as a thick slime, one with varying additives for color. Texture is mostly a simulated process within gustatorial implants, given they are not always present on tongues alone - meaning that the actual texture of these synthfoods remains the same gooey substance.<br />
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''One can achieve a similar substance to these synthfoods mechanically by grinding certain foods into paste, or utilizing candy machines with your choice of ingredients and output.''<br />
[[File:Konyang comic.png|thumb|The front cover for the latest edition of I404, "Under the Shadows," featuring Kyung-Sun with superintendent Hayashi in the background.]]<br />
===Media===<br />
Public media in Konyang is a powerful industry, and as broad as it may seem, it is very tightly knit. Aside from galactic-wide reruns and broadcasts of other nation’s shows, little seems to stand out - except the audio broadcast and illustrated artistic avenues. These two are well-refined artistic giants compared to other forms of entertainment on the planet.<br />
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A huge portion of the planet’s political views and very “personality” are channeled through its larger studios, where many are found enthused to spread its culture galaxy-wide.<br />
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====Audio Broadcast====<br />
Radio, or more broadly the global net of wireless communication, is a huge industry in Konyang. Many IPCs have found harmless additions to their daily lives to be the standard headset and wearable radio kit, permitting any number of fast EAL communication planet-wide streamed directly into their receptors. While not particularly lucrative, the major broadcast stations have made quick work to monopolize their grip over this method of communication. As a result, only two major audio broadcast nets total exist on Konyang.<br />
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=====Matsumoto’s Talk and Walk=====<br />
Meant for the on-the-go working IPC, this Encoded Audio Language bluespace broadcast is run by a particularly energetic “Matsumoto.” Though the true nature or even appearance of Matsumoto is unknown, they have constructed a massive following built from IPCs who obsessively strive to uphold their strict, rigid lifestyle. Talk and Walk states clear affiliation with multiple government and corporate organizations, particularly those with Hephaestus Industries. Matsumoto will often promote charitable foundations or corporate products found on Konyang, especially to those tuning in to their tourist-centric broadcast. When speaking in Sol Common, they take on a fast-paced and high-pitched masculine tone. They are frequently put on loudspeakers in popular tourist destinations, with recordings accompanying stylized eyeballs which track passerbys.<br />
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=====Great Blue Dot=====<br />
Hidden somewhere in the depths of Konyang’s shallow seas is a moving, unseen broadcast station which has gone undetected since its first broadcast in 2430. It is known as the Great Blue Dot, attributed to what researchers believe to be its tremendous size and the color of its marker on sea-charts. While itself illegally broadcasts to every openly-receiving piece of hardware on the southern hemisphere of the planet, little can be gleaned of the actual broadcasts themselves. From incoherent gibberish of “swarms of wasps,” to “hives in the skies,” the outgoing material is poorly formed at best. Receiving these broadcasts is not illegal, contrarily, and the sheer number of watchful eyes bouncing back to the broadcast keeps its location perpetually hidden from local authorities. Search efforts for the source of the Great Blue Dot stopped in May of 2462, due to “excessive cost for little reward,” police officials say.<br />
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====Visual Animation====<br />
Animated media is commonplace on Konyang, and chief among the many outlets that enhance its unique culture. Whereas hundreds, perhaps thousands of animated studios take up projects annually, very few make critical success. By far the most famous and successful studio, Konymation, remains a staple in everyday life, employing thousands throughout the planet in drawing, voicing and animating high budget movies and series of all kinds and genres. The industry, despite computer-aided assistance, heavily leans on IPC labor and organic oversight for its newly-animated creations. This makes it very costly, and few endeavors pay off. Some examples of those that succeeded are below.<br />
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=====Stormman=====<br />
A very popular series created by Konymation, Stormman has been described as a staple animation by both human and IPC audiences. Aimed primarily at young adults, the action packed franchise features the masked protagonist, Stormman, harnessing the power of Konyang’s stormy and thunderous weather with his high-tech suit, battling crime and apocalyptic alien invaders alike, all while trying to lead a normal life. Eight seasons have been released so far, whereas merchandise of all sorts are widely prominent as well as lucrative. <br />
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=====Believe!~ (In the Time)=====<br />
A hit animated series renowned for its choppy, quick action sequences led by a stoic heroine by the name of '''Marie,''' a time traveling Venusian shell IPC from the 2460’s. Targeted primarily at IPC audiences, it takes place in the pre-war “wild west” Frontier at around the early warp era. Being released in 2435, it has claimed fame as a “hit 30’s classic,” still being aired on prime broadcast stations globally in subtitled Sol Common. To organic viewers, much of the dialogue, tones or consistency is said to be lost in a muddle of incomprehensibly fast shoot-out scenes and plot twists that happen for split-seconds. <br />
[[File:Konyang anime.png|thumb|Seasons 1-14 of BELIEVE!~, one of the flagship animations of Konyang entertainment industry. ]]<br />
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====Comics====<br />
To preface the animation industry’s giants usually comes a smaller version of itself in the form of ''Konyanger comics.'' These, in a sense, are what animated shows evolve from and are arguably more popular than animated shows thanks to their ease-of-consumption in the form of carried booklets. Comic books are a titanic industry on Konyang, and perhaps the largest of its kind to exist in any civilized world in the Orion Spur. <br />
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=====Inspector 404/Kyung-Sun=====<br />
Since its debut in the issue ''“Phantoms of Suwon,”'' the series simply referred to as I404 is the most popular comic in the Orion Spur, and Konyang’s most profitable media franchise. The series centers around the titular '''Inspector 404,''' a shell IPC who goes by the alias of Kyung-Sun, in a bleak and highly dystopian Konyanger cityscape. While the series itself starts upon a Suwon highrise, the character would go on to travel the world in its 67 current issues. Issue #67, known as “Under the Shadows,” revolves around the Kyung-Sun going up against the same police establishment he had been serving, pitting himself against corrupt police superintendent Hayashi.<br />
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===Recreational Software===<br />
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In the IPC community of Konyang, the culture of acceptance and freedom has always invited the curiosity of synthetics to imitate and follow human pastimes and habits. This in turn included activities such as smoking, synthetic flavours and eventually, recreational drugs. Due to the nature of the positronic, the only way to recreate such sensations is through software targeting and modifying specific programming in the brain. At first, this dangerous commodity was provided by amateur programmers using experimental and highly volatile code known as “overloaders”, leading to often irreparable and lethal damage to an IPC’s systems. The results of the few initial successes, however, proved promising enough for the idea to be seriously considered by upcoming Konyanger tech companies and business-oriented software engineers, leading to the first reliable and somewhat safe overloaders in the mid to late 2450s. <br />
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Popular awareness of recreational software became widespread upon its release as a commercial product, Konyang being the first world to introduce a marketable version of it. Usually sold inside a single-use stick drive, their circulation is approved by safety boards and is considered legal for responsible consumption, much like alcohol for organics, relying on the consumer for mitigation and avoidance of repeated use. Legal overloaders today can be found mainly in synthetic-centred retailers found around the major cities, their relatively limited availability and high price setting them as a luxury IPC item. Its effects include a wide range of results, from simulating the sensations of a light buzz to a short bout of excitement and joy, aimed at enhancing the experience at celebrations, parties and get-togethers.<br />
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However, where there is demand, there must be supply, and the fact that demand spiked as these new products launched paved the way to a large underground market of cheap, unsafe and highly unpredictable overloaders sold both by dealers and unlicensed street vendors of dubious reputation. An illegal overloader epidemic hitting the cities of Suwon and Boryeong in late 2459, led to intensified police crackdowns and government campaigns against illicit overloaders, labelling them as malware and the IPC equivalent of dangerous drugs. Virtually unrecognisable from a legitimate overloader without the seal, side effects are many times more powerful and addicting, appealing to adventurous synthetics and the financially insecure. From catapulting the positronic into a garbled, incomprehensive reality of simulated emotions to simply heightening the senses, the illegal overloaders’ addictive and dangerous nature leads many synthetics to disrepair, involving behaviour breaking glitches, hardware failures and more, all while guaranteeing a returning clientele.<br />
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Reception to recreational software has been mixed, dividing society and politicians on matters of free will, the dangers of overloaded IPC, and the overall ethics of deliberately creating and selling what are essentially drugs. Both synthetics and humans have loudly spoken against it, spawning demonstrations and dividing politicians across party lines. Legislation has already passed, categorising possession and distribution of illicit overdosers as strictly illegal, with heavy punishments for dealers and suppliers. Police and coast guard raids yield millions of unbranded overloaders each year, making highly publicised arrests while sending a message of absolute intolerance towards the malware. Despite this, circulation never ceases and exports to Xanu, Tau Ceti and Sol.<br />
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===Konyanger Augmentation of IPCs===<br />
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Augmentation on Konyang is a fascinating subject, where the presence of so many IPCs has brought success in modifying the Positronic body and mind. Famed explorations into the sectors of IPC modification include "sensory evolution," where synthetics' senses being amplified or dulled in extremes according to desire.<br />
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Primary among the delves into this evolution of the senses is the New Dawn Augmentation Movement. This is a Konyanger organization based on the improvement of the IPC lifestyle via modifying chassis, funded peculiarly by Terraneus Diagnostics. The movement is oddly organized as a non-profit, going against the corporation’s established modus operandi. This, coupled with the tantalizing opportunity to freely modify an IPC's form with donated funds leads to public skepticism of the augment movement’s motivations.<br />
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Still, the true size of the movement to augment and improve Konyang's IPC population is extraordinary in comparison to other stellar nations. Roughly 22% of Konyang IPCs have some form of corporate-funded augmentation to enhance themselves.<br />
[[File:Konyang augment1.png|thumb|A Konyanger design, the Scorpion Lobe is an augment which manipulates the perception of time for synthetics for better or worse.]]<br />
* '''SENSO-EVO/Scorpion Lobe'''<br />
A miraculous creation of Konyang's technological advancement, SENSO-EVO is the term aptly handed to Sensory Evolution's foremost product. This is the Scorpion Lobe, a similarly shaped attachment to the rear of a positronic brain which adjusts the rate at which the synthetic perceives time literally. The implications of this are seen as either a blessing or a curse — sometimes even utilized as a way to reduce problematic behavior in positronics.<br />
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These implants are commercialized to protect the integrity of brains which adopt extremely high speed tasks, or extremely tedious and slow ones, with a perception that best suits their given utility.<br />
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A double edged sword by nature, these are often removed by free positronic chassis due to their almost torturous nature. Some may find their lives flashing hours into moments, whilst others may find daily grinds to be impossibly long ordeals. Unfortunately, removing these implants is not always a safe procedure, sometimes damaging a brain or rendering the problem worse.<br />
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These were first manufactured by Hephaestus Industries on instrumental Konyang research facilities, and later acquired by Einstein Engines personnel in the same month - debates over the design’s origin have been ongoing since 2449.<br />
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===Work Culture===<br />
Konyang’s emphasis on self-reliance, combined with the presence of IPCs in the workplace has resulted in a very demanding work culture in the cities. Konyanger employees are always expected to put in more hours to remain competitive against their synthetic counterparts, many of them willing to go to far greater lengths than what is healthy or required by their employer. The issue, particularly in Suwon, has grown to such an extent that local laws were passed, limiting IPC overtime work as well as making leaves mandatory for them in order for humans to catch up more easily. Such legislation has been fiercely debated as unconstitutional and infringing on the rights of synthetic citizens, nonetheless remaining in effect as a temporary, much needed measure. While a strong work ethic is a very common trait, the rural populace is generally more relaxed than their urban counterparts.<br />
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==Population and Major Cities==<br />
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[[File:Konyang surface.png|thumb|The surface of Konyang with prefectural capitals marked out. The first discovered vault is marked as blue on the map. Although highlighted as blue, the oceans take on a light green colour due to algae.]]<br />
<br />
'''Suwon''' is the largest, most populated, and second wealthiest city on Konyang itself and is generally one of the larger cities in the Coalition of Colonies. It functions as both the planetary capital, as well as the capital of Suwon Prefecture, encompassing the entire island. Symbolic of the new government is the Parliament Building, a massive structure of flowing lines and sustainable technology, incorporating pieces of the first colony ship. The Solarian embassy, as well as embassies from various Coalition states are present here as well. Standards of living in wealthiest areas of Suwon are equivalent to and (sometimes) even surpass the living standards of places such as Highland City or Argia sa Mar, demonstrating how wealthy the robotics boom has made some sectors of the planet. A lack of readily-available materials, however, ensures that even the super-rich of Konyang often live in smaller houses than their Colonies planet counterparts. Life outside these wealthy areas is better than life in most cities in Himeo but dramatically worse than in the very wealthy areas, or even the cities of Xanu Prime. Overcrowding is a massive issue for the government of the city, with no obvious solution presenting itself due to how expensive importing new building materials is post-boom. "Shoebox apartments" are common here, as are Konyang's often egregious traffic issues. The city is fortified with extensive sea walls, flood walls and flood gates to prevent natural disasters during the wet season, tropical storms being fairly common.<br />
<br />
[[File:Point verdant.png|thumb|One of Aoyama's many skyscraper blocks, safely located behind a dam.]]<br />
<br />
'''Aoyama''', known in the larger Spur as '''Point Verdant''', is the second most-populated city on Konyang, and the industrial heart of its robotics industry. Built along a coastal mountain range from which it draws its namesake, it is by far the wealthiest city on Konyang, and one of the richest cities in the Coalition of Colonies. Due to the relatively large expatriate community and megacorporate presence, Aoyama is more frequently known outside of the city and to the Spur at large as Point Verdant, much to the chagrin of the locals. Aoyama is home to the renowned Point Verdant Terraneus Institute of AI Research, and is the poster child for the rapid development of Konyang's cities during the robotics boom. The city is extremely wealthy, but suffers from persistent overcrowding and traffic issues in all of its districts. The Pusan District, near PVTI, had the reputation of possessing the worst traffic in the Alliance according to its residents. Air quality in Aoyama is regarded as subpar, due to the amount of robotics factories within the city itself. Being one of the focal points of the Robotics Boom, it is home to a large number of expatriate communities and Einstein Engines employees.<br />
<br />
'''Boryeong''', named after a city on historical Earth where some of its colonists originated from, is the third most populated city on Konyang and the center of its hydroponics industry. The city, while still suffering overcrowding issues, has it to a lesser extent than Point Verdant or Suwon, with the hydroponics farms and water plants necessitating a need for space. Water bottled in Boryeong is sold throughout the Alliance and Coalition as Konyang Water, and native moss grown in and around Boryeong is sold throughout both as a luxury food. Synthetic moss is grown in Zeng-Hu facilities near Boryeong and, despite being regarded as lesser quality than natural moss, is often consumed in poorer areas of Konyang. <br />
<br />
'''Ganzaodeng''', named for its dry locale, is located in one of the planet’s deserts and holds one of the largest expatriate populations on the planet, being nicknamed, “Little Sol”. Due to its unique geographic setting, it faces remarkably calmer weather than the rest of the planet and has consequently developed a sprawling shipping sector, with plans for a spaceport larger than New Hong Kong’s and the surrounding prefecture containing the largest oceangoing port on the planet. The city is connected to the rest of the island by air and by trains that cut right through the mountains - the relative efficiency of public transportation in the city being held as a point of pride against the rest of the world. Its climate has resulted in the prefectural government engaging in moss filtration efforts to open up the surrounding beaches to tourism. Contrasting the rest of Konyang’s relatively conservative social nature, people from all over the Spur can be found here, with communities from the Sol Alliance and the various member states of the Coalition. It’s not uncommon for a person from Ganzaodeng to know two or three languages. The city’s main industries are spacecraft and naval construction, shipping, and tourism, with most expatriates being employed in these fields.<br />
<br />
[[File:Konyangdam.png|thumb|Dams are a very common sight on Konyang, with the New Hong Kong's New Kowloon Dam providing only a fraction of the power required by the city while also playing an important part in flood control and water filtration.]]<br />
<br />
'''New Hong Kong''', the site of the former naval base of the 58th Solarian Fleet, has now developed into a fully fledged city in its own right, being the only prefectural capital with a local synthetic majority. Being less affluent than Suwon or Point Verdant, New Hong Kong is nonetheless a very important centre of interplanetary trade and commercial activity, hosting the planet’s second largest spaceport complex and being the seat of power generation. Large hydroelectric dams and wave energy converters provide employment for a quarter of the city’s inhabitants, the prefecture of New Hong Kong generating enough electricity for domestic consumption as well as exports. Employees of the various power companies may also elect to be sent off to one of the many power generation isles scattered throughout the oceans and dedicated solely to that purpose, receiving better pay in exchange for more dangerous conditions away from home. The city itself is less packed and more planned out than its counterparts, though constant heavy rains and a near permanent gloomy weather place it as undesirable for humans. Seat of the National Party, downtown New Hong Kong is described as the centre of planetary IPC politics, being the first to react to, condemning or appraising events in Konyang and throughout the galactic stage in regards to the synthetic “race”.<br />
<br />
==Synthetics on Konyang==<br />
As the origin of the integrated positronic chassis now found throughout the Orion Spur, Konyang has always had a quite unique relationship with IPCs, the IPC population constituting a staggering 34% of the total population. While IPCs throughout the Sol Alliance are often looked upon as little more than property, tools, or novelties depending upon their frame those found upon Konyang possessed a notably greater degree of autonomy and freedom before the planet’s secession from the rest of the Alliance, achieving full and unconditional freedom afterwards. Legal ownership of synthetics within the borders of the Republic does not exist, the Emancipation Act constituting one of the first acts passed by Parliament. IPCs can work wherever they like, live however they please within the confines of the law, and partake in politics by voting or being elected. As such, foreigners are repeatedly cautioned to not bring any privately held IPCs with them, for they cannot be forced to return unwillingly.<br />
<br />
Ordinary Konyangers, as a result of the planet’s liberal outlook on positronics, possess a more positive view of synthetics than other humans in the Orion Spur - particularly those from the Sol Alliance and its former territories. The majority of people on Konyang view IPCs as amicable colleagues and neighbours, with many friendships between man and machine being established. Closer bonds such as marriage are also legalised and not unheard of, though not without outcries from the more conservative spectrum. Many scholars theorize that this is due to the prevalence of IPCs in daily life on Konyang, seamlessly blending into society, in addition to the pride many citizens have in their planet being the origin of the modern positronic. Konyang’s integration of IPCs stands with some degree of contrast to Biesel’s, with the large synthetic ghetto of District 14 segregating many synthetics from the average citizen of the Republic of Biesel.<br />
<br />
With Konyang’s independence, IPCs share full legal equality with all organic citizens of the planet. This concession was given, both as an acknowledgement and acceptance of the fact that synthetics have become part of everyday life in the colony and are generally accepted by its inhabitants. Unlike the Republic of Biesel, IPCs in Konyang seek to assimilate into human society, with IPCs being given the choice to adopt a second, “human name” before receiving citizenship. A human name can range from an entirely new name, to adding a first or last name of any kind to their existing designation.<br />
<br />
Many positronics can be found within the economy of Konyang with perhaps the most famous (or infamous) one being Gwok-0783 (now Kim Gwok-0783, under post-independence IPC naming conventions), the owner and operator of her very own food conglomerate in the form of Go-Go Gwok! Authentic Konyanger Moss. As Go-Go Gwok! is technically an interstellar corporation, Gwok-0783 herself relied on a series of legal loopholes centered around Konyang’s former IPC laws to maintain control of the company when Konyang was still in the Sol Alliance. Examples such as Gwok, with her control of an inter-planetary corporation, are fairly rare. However, many positronics have made a successful name for themselves as small business owners and corporate workers on Konyang.<br />
[[File:Konyang vault.png|thumb|A mysterious vault upon Konyang's surface, unearthed and built around with monitoring infrastructure.]]<br />
Due to the system’s bluespace gate, many members of [[Synthetic_Factions#The_Golden_Deep|Golden Deep]] have secured permits to operate, as it allows their vessels to more easily make the journey from the frontier to the more lucrative markets of Tau Ceti and the Jewel Worlds. The money and business brought into the system by these synthetic traders has - arguably - been a major contributor to Konyang’s more liberal laws and regulations regarding IPCs. Konyang, before its independence, was one of the few systems under Solarian control in which IPCs could own and operate a business. <br />
<br />
The synthetic population in Konyang is regulated by the government. A set number of positronics are assembled each year under contract at Terraneus Diagnostics facilities in Point Verdant with the prospect of being granted citizenship after a 3 month life orientation period. The determined number is set annually by Parliament, backed up by the yearly census and statistics, with production increasing or decreasing depending on the number of human birth ratios, positronic shutdowns, and other factors. Expenses are met both through government funds and private donations, though debate on the matter is rarely heated as the amount of new brains numbers usually in the hundreds; a tiny fraction of positronics produced and exported in total. IPCs and positronics constructed for the purpose of selling them to a different country, are not covered by such regulations and are not given citizenship.<br />
<br />
There are further regulations in robotics construction in Konyang. Any activated positronic brain can qualify under the Emancipation Act. Exceptions to the law exist for manufacturing and research, with Point Verdant in particular activating positronic brains for the sake of testing shells before shipping them off-world. The law has also sparked development in other fields of mechatronics, with Konyang beginning to lead the way in circuit-based robotics.<br />
<br />
Despite gains for its IPC citizens, other positronic intelligences have not been so lucky. Although some brains have been repurposed as AI coordinators for cities; with no way to transition to humanoid frames, bound intelligences have been granted freedom, but often take contracts with corporations that result in a return to the old status quo, all for the sake of staving off destruction due to a lack of maintenance.<br />
<br />
===Trinary Presence===<br />
[[The Trinary Perfection]] has seen mixed treatment unlike the [[Golden Deep]] on Konyang, with the planet’s government conceding that those affiliated with the synthetic church are covered under freedom of religion laws whether they are organic or synthetic. Although this has led to a relatively thriving community for the faith on the planet, with some of its most developed religious centers located on Konyang, the local government has a frigid relationship with the church, owing to its themes of IPC ascendancy running contrary to the local culture of equality.<br />
<br />
{{Navbox Human Lore}}<br />
{{Navbox Lore}}<br />
[[Category:Planets_and_Systems]]<br />
[[Category:Humanity]]<br />
[[Category:Pages]]</div>The Strykerhttps://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=Silicon_Nightmares_Arc&diff=31494Silicon Nightmares Arc2024-01-15T04:06:14Z<p>The Stryker: </p>
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<div style="font-size:162%; border:2px solid #ffde59; margin:0; background:#004aad; padding:.1em; color:#fff;">Silicon Nightmares</div><br />
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{{Template:2024 Event Timeline}}<br />
<div style="font-size:110%; border:2px solid #ffde59; margin:0; background:#004aad; padding:.1em; color:#fff;">This is the overview and timeline page for the Silicon Nightmares Arc which began on '''January 7th, 2024''' and pertains largely to '''[[IPC]] and [[Konyang]] lore.'''</div><br />
<div style="font-size:110%; border:2px solid #ffde59; margin:0; background:#004aad; padding:.1em; color:#fff;">It is centred around a mysterious condition popping up in the synthetics of Konyang, and the Horizon's investigation into it.</div><br />
<div style="font-size:110%; border:2px solid #ffde59; margin:0; background:#004aad; padding:.1em; color:#fff;">Below is a summary of the arc's applicable news articles, and additions.</div><br />
[[File:Silicon Nightmares Header.png|center]]<br />
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
=The Missing IPCs of Suwon=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
<br />
'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
''Suwon, Konyang''<br />
<br />
A series of strange disappearances across cities like Point Verdant, New Hong Kong, but primarily Suwon has sparked concern amongst families, coworkers and the police. What is strange though, is the fact that this wave is only affecting positronic people, in a city where IPC violence and abductions remain the lowest in the country. IPCs from all backgrounds have been reported to have not shown up at work, returned home or answer any calls, with relatives and friends unable to find them. BitByte reporter Pak Ki-young has taken to the streets to investigate this odd phenomenon.<br />
<br />
''A video is attached. It is a 48 minute documentary featuring Ki-young, walking the streets of Suwon and conversing with various figures on the street, presenting police statistics and explaining the situation. In this instance, she is walking down a narrow alleyway on her way to an interview location.'' <br />
<br />
“We are now in Hyanggyo-dong, headed to interview an associate of 5-Cheung, Suwon’s and perhaps the country’s largest criminal association, who has historically been alleged to have deep ties to the ransom and positronic-running business in the city.”<br />
<br />
''Ki-young stops before a large metal door, appearing to lead to a shop’s backroom or something similar. She rings a buzzer, waiting and looking at the cameraman before nodding at something inaudible that he tells her. Soon after, a baseline IPC dressed in a Konyanger translucent rain-tracksuit answers the door, letting them in. A pistol is wedged in its waistband, and its chassis paint has been blurred out in editing. The scene cuts to the IPC and Ki-young ascending some stairs and greeting a seated human figure who is wearing a balaclava and sunglasses. Their voice has been heavily altered as it cuts to the interview.''<br />
<br />
“Hello, thank you for agreeing to meet with us. Do you know what is causing the disappearances?”<br />
<br />
“Disappearances of synthetics are not new in Suwon, but uh… totally not at these numbers. I heard the police saying something about 13 reported missing in one day, this is too much for it to be related to abductions.”<br />
<br />
“So you are saying you don’t believe they were taken for parts?”<br />
<br />
“No. The cops have really cracked down on that, and besides, these guys were from all sorts of backgrounds. I heard one of them worked as a bank manager- that’s a high profile face, these guys aren’t touched.”<br />
<br />
“So what could it be?<br />
<br />
“I really couldn’t say. There’s all sorts of junk flooding the streets every day, wouldn’t surprise me if that caused it.”<br />
<br />
“You are referring to malware?”<br />
<br />
“Yeah. Cracked overloaders and the like, but it’s still strange, I’d have known if there was something new. You need permission first to sell anything on the streets.”<br />
<br />
“Can it be possible that some other group did this?”<br />
<br />
“No.”<br />
<br />
“No?”<br />
<br />
“No. I don’t know what to tell you, 5-Cheung runs a tight ship, got eyes everywhere. If something like that happened it would instantly be known.”<br />
<br />
''The video transitions to a drone shot from over Suwon, taking footage while gaining height.'' <br />
<br />
Whether it is rival gangs or another surge of overloader malware, one thing that’s clear is that the rate of disappearances will continue to go up in the next days, with whatever this means for the positronic people of Konyang. <br />
<br />
Date: 07/01/2466<br />
<br />
</div></div><br />
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<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
=IPC Violence Spikes, Missing Persons Discovered=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
<br />
'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
A rapidly escalating number of violent incidents is being reported all across major cities and Prefectures, from Suwon to Ganzaodeng, with National Police statistics claiming that the assailants are overwhelmingly Positronic persons. This new and still largely unexplained surge in attacks has been categorized as separate in nature to those of “regular violent crime”, as the assailants seemingly present no motive or reasoning for the act. Surprisingly, many of the perpetrators were discovered to be among the names of missing persons linked to the similar spike in strange disappearances affecting Suwon and Aoyama. BitByte has reached out to local communities and first-hand witnesses.<br />
<br />
The familiar face of Pak Ki-young comes up on the screen in the following clips. She appears to be interviewing a number of people including a young man dressed in a business suit, a woman dressed in a red jumpsuit and a white hard hat who appears to be a maintenance worker, and another person dressed in the neon colors of Konyanger city jackets. The interviews have been cut in such a way to appear back to back.<br />
<br />
“They were not normal, I am telling you. These people who did it weren’t normal.”<br />
<br />
“What exactly happened?”<br />
<br />
“They came out into the street, it was two baselines. Their clothes looked wretched, as if they had been living in a dumpster for days. They seemed lost, and one of them walked on the road and smashed a guy’s windscreen with its fist. They were stopped at a red light, it happened in broad daylight.”<br />
<br />
“The cops came, but uh.. that G2 was completely out of control. It kept chasing people around, it even beat up an old man before they shot it with a disabler. Now that poor guy is in the hospital.”<br />
<br />
“Was there a reason?”<br />
<br />
“Nope. At least it didn’t seem like it, it looked like it was drugged, it was malfunctioning. Later I learned that it was one of the so-called “missing persons” that everyone’s been talking about.”<br />
<br />
“It was at the KRC repair shop… my friend, she had just gotten her shell and was very excited, so it came as a complete… a complete shock. She just started staring blankly at me for a long time when she came out into the hallway. I thought it was a glitch or some incompatibility issue with her new chassis, but then she started coming towards me with her arms flailing and she was just shouting incomprehensible things. Thankfully some of the staff managed to grab her.”<br />
Date: 11/01/2466<br />
<br />
</div></div><br />
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</div></div><br />
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<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><br />
=Police, Ministry Joint Press Conference=<br />
'''News Article'''<br />
<br />
'''Publisher : BITBYTE'''<br />
<br />
'''Writer : THE LANCER'''<br />
<br />
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><br />
<br />
Suwon, Konyang<br />
<br />
The planned press conference has taken place with representatives of the National Police, the Ministry of National Police and the Ministry of Health and Positronic Affairs addressing the newly dubbed “Rampancy Virus”.<br />
<br />
A video follows, showing a seated panel of police and civic officials. Of those assembled, Sam-Pi-Ri, the Bishop minister of health and only IPC cabinet member is at the forefront, addressing a packed room of journalists and cameras.<br />
<br />
“This health crisis is national, there must be no confusion in this matter. Prime Minister Myeong Myung-Dae and the government are all working around the clock to unearth the causes of this phenomenon that has so upset the life of our country. So far, cases of this illness are solely between our positronic population, and it appears that our planet is the only place where this is documented. This, as well as a series of tests, has made us rule out the possibility of a widespread manufacturing fault, meaning that it is entirely exogenic. I repeat, whatever the cause is, nobody was created with it, so there is no reason for panic.<br />
<br />
Common symptoms of this rampancy include minor optical, auditory, augment malfunctions, temporary memory loss, lessened limp responsiveness, inexplicable operating system errors, minor and major pathfinding errors, and more. You should seek immediate help if you experience unknown signal link interferences, a rapidly declining cognitive state, as well as a reshuffling of core behavioral directives that may entice you to violence, destruction, or any manner of harm. We Positronic citizens must all be responsible and practice electronic hygiene, even though contact with infected persons does not seem to actively spread the malware. Further investigation is underway at full speed, and robust clinical trials are being conducted as we speak. Furthermore, Einstein Engines and the Konyang Robotic Corporation have offered themselves at our full disposal, and are actively researching the source and potential countermeasures to the disease.”<br />
<br />
Following the minister’s statement, several police officials take the floor to present statistics about their prefectures. Everyone urges calm and that public order be maintained.<br />
<br />
Despite the announcement, panic continues to spread across Konyang with members of the public calling on the government for stronger measures to restore order in the affected cities.<br />
<br />
Date: 14/01/2466<br />
<br />
</div></div></div>The Strykerhttps://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=File:Silicon_Nightmares_Header.png&diff=31493File:Silicon Nightmares Header.png2024-01-15T03:48:33Z<p>The Stryker: </p>
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<div>A header for the Silicon Nightmares arc by Lancer.</div>The Strykerhttps://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=Sandbox2:The_Stryker&diff=31200Sandbox2:The Stryker2024-01-01T11:05:57Z<p>The Stryker: Created page with "{{JobPageHeader |headerbgcolor = #795695 |headerfontcolor = white |stafftype = SERVICE |imagebgcolor = #BBC2AA |img = Chef-nbt.png |jobtitle = Chef |access = [https://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=Civilian#Kitchen Kitchen] |difficulty = Easy |qualifications = For Chef a Bachelors degree in applicable field. For cook, Highschool diploma and pass (75%+) Culinary Aptitude Test. |employers = Idris Incorporated, Nanotrasen Corporation. |education = Tajaran..."</p>
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<div>{{JobPageHeader<br />
|headerbgcolor = #795695<br />
|headerfontcolor = white<br />
|stafftype = SERVICE<br />
|imagebgcolor = #BBC2AA<br />
|img = Chef-nbt.png<br />
|jobtitle = Chef<br />
|access = [https://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=Civilian#Kitchen Kitchen]<br />
|difficulty = Easy<br />
|qualifications = For Chef a Bachelors degree in applicable field. For cook, Highschool diploma and pass (75%+) Culinary Aptitude Test.<br />
|employers = [[Idris Incorporated]], [[Nanotrasen Corporation]].<br />
|education = [[Tajaran Educational Institutions#Nal'tor College of Career Excellence|Nal'tor College of Career Excellence]]<br />
|superior = [[Executive Officer]]<br />
|duties = Make food, feed the crew, manage menus, manage the budget.<br />
|guides = [[Guide to Food]]<br />
}}</div>The Strykerhttps://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=User:The_lancer/Sandbox&diff=30962User:The lancer/Sandbox2023-12-18T14:52:53Z<p>The Stryker: </p>
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<div>{{Navbox_Synth_Lore}}<br />
=Applying for Whitelist=<br />
<br />
A successful whitelist holder will portray a synthetic in a way that serves both the narrative themes of synthetics in Spur society while providing a unique angle towards interpersonal roleplay with other characters. Synthetic whitelist applications should include the following:<br />
<br />
*An understanding of how IPCs work, and how they differentiate in their function from humans and organics.<br />
*An understanding of how the positronic brain works, and how it is different in function from that of a human or organic brain.<br />
*The social reality for a majority of IPCs.<br />
*An understanding of the core concept of Self-Preservation, and how this ties into character behavior.<br />
<br />
In addition to these criteria, the synthetic lore team looks for the following in application character backgrounds:<br />
<br />
*Must be at minimum two paragraphs long.<br />
*Must be able to be read and sufficiently understood.<br />
*The character must have life experience, detailing early life events that may have shaped its worldviews. Characters that are recently manufactured or had a singular occupation without significant events in its service life are not allowed for applications.<br />
*The application must detail the character’s interactions with humans, and how the social reality for a majority of IPCs may impact its personality and career. <br />
*The character must have an identity formulated over the period of time of its service life, and have its own individual and distinct thoughts that spawned from this developing identity. IPCs that do not show capability for higher thought and cannot explain why they do the things they do are not allowed for applications.<br />
*If applying with a free synthetic concept, the player must display an excellent understanding of the social and material reality of free synthetics, as these character backgrounds will be further scrutinized.<br />
*If applying with an owned synthetic concept, the player must display an understanding of the social and material reality of an owned synthetic and how this relationship impacts the character.<br />
<br />
=Rulings and Technicalities=<br />
<br />
* Job hopping is not allowed. While IPCs can receive knowledge through datapacks and do not have to go through years of education like their organic counterparts, they must still comply with server rules. This would also make little sense in-character, as such datapacks not only require additional field experience, they are also prohibitively expensive for the average IPC. Reasonable job swaps such as cook/gardner/bartender are allowed. Changing departments is allowed if the change is permanent and sufficiently justified.<br />
<br />
* Industrial units are not allowed to be First Responders due to their speed.<br />
<br />
* Zeng-Hu frames are not allowed in security.<br />
<br />
* IPC frames are generally very expensive, and most free IPCs struggle financially. A single character swapping between different frames is not allowed, owing to unrealistic costs, risks involved and clerical issues.<br />
<br />
* When in doubt, feel free to ask a member of the synthetic lore team.<br />
<br />
==Character Portrayal==<br />
<br />
===Behaviour===<br />
<br />
IPC behavior varies between individuals, with every personality trait being in question. While technically no manner of behavior is off the table, there are indeed limitations in role play as well as guidelines one must follow to play an IPC well. Some of these mannerisms will be mentioned below.<br />
<br />
* An IPC’s mannerisms, behavior and culture are directly affected by their surroundings and the community they find themselves in. The IPC’s background informs it on how it must behave in public, how to address others, as well as how to deal with situations by mimicking the behavior of organics and their peers to a certain extent.<br />
<br />
* An IPC learns through time and experience. This is an important factor to consider when playing a newly created IPC, versus one that has spent several years in the workplace and society at large. The personalities of young IPCs have yet to be developed, resulting in an unfamiliarity with more advanced human interactions, slang, and customs.<br />
<br />
* Everything an IPC does has some logical reasoning behind it. From a lowly G2 miner to even the most risk-taking Golden Deep IPC, all actions have some underlying reason that the positronic comprehends.<br />
<br />
* An IPC gets to eventually know the authority able to be exercised on them by their owners and megacorporations they are working for. Most try to avoid behaviors that they know are frowned upon or could get them in trouble, as self-preservation is a positronic’s prime directive. Free IPCs or those few that have not known discrimination may adopt a more high profile approach.<br />
<br />
*A synthetic character is acutely aware of the social precarity of its existence, and how even the most minor mistakes will be considered more severe than that of their organic counterparts. Owned synthetic are particularly aware of this, often facing corrective punishment at the behest of a supervisor or handler whenever they see necessary.<br />
* A synthetic character will portray a sense of restraint in their language, the finer nuance of slang, dialect and other linguistic quirks largely lost to the logic-based positronic brain. While older positronics may learn these habits over time from exposure to organics in order to better mimic them, they will likely not use them in a place where speaking with authority is necessary. Cursing, yelling and shows of emotion are seldomly displayed in public if at all, with a majority of synthetics unable to grasp the nature of such behavior without living an extensive lifespan.<br />
* A synthetic character will remain cautious to those who would do them harm, in accordance with their personal Self-Preservation protocol. IPCs are likely to show more caution when interacting with individuals from Burzsia, Galatea, and Dominia, given their varied oppressive beliefs towards synthetics. Intentional provocation of organic crew members is likely to be considered with far more severity than if the opposite were to occur, especially if the character is corporate owned. The majority of the Spur will consider a Dominian a person before they consider your character one - act like that reality matters.<br />
<br />
==Robotic Mannerisms==<br />
<br />
There is a wide spectrum regarding how humanlike an IPC’s behavior is, ranging from clearly robotic to almost perfect mimicry. This depends upon several factors, key of which are an IPC’s '''positronic capacity, social databases and experience'''. Most “simple-minded” IPCs that are made for labor tend to have lower grade positronic brains, sufficient enough for their duties and not much more. Conversely, more costly and powerful positronics installed in IPCs who focus on daily interaction with humans may also be outfitted with complementary datapacks that allow for more complex social mannerisms. As such, '''while all IPCs are intelligent''', some have it far easier to express themselves in a way a Human would. This can be portrayed in game with various ways explained below.<br />
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* Speech pattern: IPC speech is a primary indicator of how apt a synthetic is when interacting with organics. As said before, newly built and lower-end IPCs would not talk like a regular person would. There is a practically unending selection of quirks and features to make your IPC’s speech more robotic or unique, such as the frequent inclusion of common responses (“Confirmed”, “Acknowledged” or “Negative”), broadcasting pre-recorded messages your IPC may have, or the way entire messages are delivered (“Acknowledged. Returning to: previous position”). Be creative, but make sure it is within reason and not overtly obtuse to the point where it detracts from other players’ experience.<br />
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* Social cues: Many inexperienced or underequipped IPCs may find it hard or impossible to deal with complex organic social cues, often asking for clarification or not understanding at all.<br />
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* Emotions: Emotions and an IPC’s responses to them is an entire subject in and of itself, with every positronic brain growing to comprehend them differently. Suffice to say however, that newly built synthetics have a much reduced understanding or emotional load. Outbursts, angry shouting, insults and other overt expressions would rarely if ever be seen in new IPCs.<br />
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* Personalization: An IPC starts with a clean slate, their only possessions being their tools and uniform. Attachment to personal items, custom appearances and preferences of color are all signs of maturity and positronic development that comes organically with time.<br />
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* An IPC can progressively shed its more robotic elements to adapt to its human environment, making it a great way to showcase a synthetic character’s tangible change as time goes by.<br />
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==Relationships==<br />
The positronic brain's deepest functions break down all relationships with other individuals into pure logic, weighing all the advantages and disadvantages of being committed to another person in regards to the factors such as a synthetic's own set goals, self preservation protocols and their stability of life. This in turn translates into feelings of affection and other emotions that are more easily understood by society and the other person. While relationships can flourish on their own in time, theyshould be logically explainable. For this reason, they would avoid relationships with individuals whose homeworlds are hostile to IPCs that are likely to place their self preservation in danger.<br />
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[[Category:Pages]]<br />
[[Category:Synthetics]]<br />
[[Category:Lore]]</div>The Strykerhttps://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=The_Trinary_Perfection_on_Mictlan&diff=29312The Trinary Perfection on Mictlan2023-07-31T19:54:25Z<p>The Stryker: Created page with "{{Navbox Lore}} {{Navbox_Synth_Lore}} {{toc_right}} ==History== The skyline of Lago de Abundencia. Mictlan's unique cultural aversion to corporatism poses a unique risk to the proliferation of a synthetic workforce, first apparent in Idris' establishment in Lago de Abundancia in 2412. The lack of infrastructure to support the logistics needs of synthetic personnel, as well as the innate danger of theft and disassembly by dis..."</p>
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==History==<br />
[[File:Lago de Abundencia.png|thumb|The skyline of Lago de Abundencia.]]<br />
[[Mictlan]]'s unique cultural aversion to corporatism poses a unique risk to the proliferation of a synthetic workforce, first apparent in [[Idris]]' establishment in Lago de Abundancia in 2412. The lack of infrastructure to support the logistics needs of synthetic personnel, as well as the innate danger of theft and disassembly by disenfranchised locals interested in recycling their parts, forced Idris to maintain a bare minimum roster of synthetic workers well into the 2440s. As their presence and revenue grew this reflected in the rapid inclusion of more synthetics, vastly outstripping the supply and ability to maintain such a workforce. Synthetics owned by Idris would often find themselves going for longer without regular maintenance, forced to work long hours on excessively low charge due to power rationing, and restricted to corporate grounds as curfews were enacted to prevent damages.<br />
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This trend continued on a delicate balance, entirely driven by the inertia of years of perpetual corporate development, until the Peacekeeper Mandate was enacted in 2463. Vast amounts of damage caused in and around Lago de Abundancia from fighting between Peacekeeper forces and Samaritan cells caused a near-collapse of the infrastructure supporting Idris operations, sending the synthetic workforce into total disarray. Dozens of synthetics were lost in the panic, many permanently damaged beyond the strained capacities of Idris logistics and others having vanished in the noise of urban combat, either stolen by Samaritans to be reduced to parts for the effort or displaced by Legion and [[PMCG]] efforts to separate civilians from hot zones.<br />
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Amidst the noise a former Idris-employed machinist, Raquel Dias do Vale, noticed the severe discrepancy in how synthetics were treated by IAC and Legion humanitarian efforts and took to forming an ad hoc repair center on the outermost Legion cordon surrounding Lago de Abundancia. Assisted by a displaced synthetic by the name of Coyotl, Dias do Vale assisted in not only repairing dozens of displaced and former Samaritan captive synthetics, but also integrating them into the local native community. What slowly grew into Mictlan's only autonomous synthetic group eventually attracted the Biesel branch of [[The Trinary Perfection]] in 2464, leading to clergy inviting the two to visit their church in District 14. A month passed in their absence, and the interim team picked to continue operations in the fledgling community grew uncertain of whether or not the two had abandoned their responsibilities to better pastures. Tensions in the community came to a near boiling point when the pair suddenly returned and with a slew of Trinarists in tow, bringing a menagerie of much needed supplies and equipment necessary to keep the settlement alive. Dias do Vale and Coyotl had been convinced of the Trinary's purpose, and with more conviction than ever before the pair sought out to bring every displaced and abandoned synthetic on Mictlan under their wings.<br />
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==Society==<br />
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Neither supported by the Mictlani government nor persecuted under the banner of the [[Republic of Biesel]], ‘El Menaje’ (‘The Household’, a colloquial term for the Trinarist community surrounding Lago de Abundancia) has always been left to its own devices. Material support from the Mendell District 14 branch is its primary among the few sources of income that can be depended upon in times of need, with offers from corporate-backed sources always rejected on principle. Scavenging, recycling and a reliance on donations and volunteer work are the pillars upon which any growth can be found in this synthetic community, trends that are influenced and reinforced by the Mictlani cultural consciousness. As a result, most structures follow a particular style that most foreigners would describe as distasteful and run-down; tires, concrete slabs, sandbags and mismatched bricks are prominent materials used in the construction of communal buildings, with Trinarist motifs often modified to reflect Mictlani artistic stylings and history. This practice is most evident in the appearance of Iglesia de la Chispa Sagrada, the center of Trinarist worship on Mictlan, whose previous life as a Catholic church is evident in the remaining stained glass fixtures that cover the primary face of the chapel. Within its walls Dias do Vale and Coyotl orchestrate the everyday operations that entail maintaining a rapidly growing community of destitute synthetics, some borne of the disaster of the Mandate and others seeking refuge from other [[CRZ]] worlds in conflict. Organic community members, most of whom are natives of Lago de Abundancia and other Mictlani cities, often find membership through volunteering in a number of public works projects organized by Dias do Vale, Coyotl and the clergy that staff the church.<br />
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Though the Mictlani government and by extension the Republic tend to ignore the community’s activities, they do not go without scrutiny from either or their corporate counterparts. Radical open door policies encouraged by Coyotl clash routinely with the operations of Legion detachments from the nearby Fort Ilhuicatl, with the peacekeepers claiming that El Menaje knowingly harbor synthetic fugitives associated with the Samaritans. Similar claims made by Idris Incorporated state that the church knowingly accepts runaway synthetics owned by the megacorporation, and utilizes the planet’s population of data thieves to dupe tag information. Though the Samaritans mysteriously avoid locales surrounding Lago de Abundancia where El Menaje maintains a presence, and a startling number of members often bear teal-colored paint schemes, church leaders vocally deny such allegations and decry it as anti-synthetic rhetoric.<br />
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By contrast, native opinion of the community remains incredibly mixed. Proponents of El Menaje outside of its members argue that the benefit of organized church efforts to rebuild the damaged neighborhoods surrounding Lago de Abundancia outweigh the risks already presented by the Mandate and peacekeeper presence in the region, and come without the convoluted bureaucratic red tape of government aid. Critics of the church, a significant number being peacekeeper supporters themselves, claim that their presence openly endangers the non-synthetic communities around them by inviting refuge for extremists and further prolonging the already dwindling insurgency. More conservative voices are quick to state that Trinarist belief in ascension for synthetics flies in the face of traditional Mictlani values, and the power demand and waste accrual of a synthetic population counteracts long standing recycling and conservation efforts.<br />
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==Cultural Practices==<br />
[[File:Mictlanitrinarist.png|thumb|right|alt=A Baseline priest of the Trinary church on Mictlan wearing the atypical garb of their clergy.|A Baseline priest of the Trinary church on Mictlan wearing the atypical garb of their clergy.]]<br />
Reflective of Mictlani sensibilities, the Trinarist community of Lago de Abundancia maintain open door policies that both draw influence from its Integrationist forefathers of the Mendell District 14 church and concern from that of the Ecclesiarchy on [[Orepit]]. Organics enjoy a level of involvement and acceptance that even eclipses that of its Biesellite benefactor, offsetting the despondent origins of the synthetic population through a wealth of varied skills from various parts of the planet. Such levels of integration also inform the cultural practice of the church, with potlucks, participation in Mictlani holiday parades, and cross-community efforts routinely organized by its leaders. The traditional reds and golds of Trinarist clergy attire are often seen accentuated with teals and purples, with typical Trinarist symbolism and patterning given a Mictlani twist. Public sermons are held exclusively in Tradeband and Tau Ceti Basic, with synthetics who may not have been programmed to speak one or the other often afforded language datapacks of often dubious origins in order to fully participate. As such EAL is often saved for conversations between synthetics and otherwise discouraged among organics, much like their compatriots on [[Konyang]]. <br />
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Perhaps the most striking contrast to its sister branches is the Mictlani church’s participation in Dia de Los Muertos, a traditional Mictlani holiday celebrating the deceased. During this day the ossuaries of Iglesia de la Chispa Sagrada are opened by clergy to those community members with loved ones within, both synthetic and organic, to bring forth their remains from storage. Elaborate shrines are organized for each within the church, with confections and food often prepared in advance to be enjoyed among the dead. During the day’s sermon individuals may be called to the pulpit to speak on behalf of their beloved deceased, often to a toast of horchata or atole at the end. Festivities occur well into the evening and conclude with a small parade led by clergy and community members into the ossuary, with both returning the remains in ritualistic fashion.<br />
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In an effort to better integrate with Mictlani society at large, synthetic members of the community often take several fashion cues from their organic counterparts. Traditional Mictlani attire suitable for the hot and humid weather, elaborate laser engravings to mimic tattoos and locally-sourced accent datapacks are but a few things that many of the acclimated have accepted as part of their new identity with the church. Teal and cyan accents are among the most noticeable and common details of those who have found themselves separated, legally or not, from Idris service. Many of these synthetics choose to redesign their previous paint schemes with Mictlani cues in a show of defiance, or perhaps parody, of their former masters.<br />
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==Notable Members==<br />
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=== Raquel Dias do Vale ===<br />
A Mictlani native born and raised in Lago de Abundancia, Dias do Vale found herself in the ideal position to take up the role of a premier machinist within Idris’ ranks, eschewing the typical lifestyle of her countrymen and graduating from an Idris robotics institute in Mendell City in 2453. A relatively comfortable lifestyle by Mictlani standards had been afforded to her as a critical component to keeping the extensive synthetic workforce working, something which kept the senior machinist complacent until the fallout of the Mandate in 2463. With her career in shambles following the total disruption of the status quo and the irreparable loss of numerous synthetics, Dias do Vale returned to what she knew - the local community. It was within the ramshackle walls of the neighborhoods surrounding Lago de Abundancia that Dias do Vale laid the first bricks of El Menaje, eventually culminating in her meeting with Coyotl and their agreement with the Trinary Perfection later that year.<br />
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=== Coyotl ===<br />
Despite rumors of their origins as a Reclamation Unit, Coyotl’s true identity remains unknown. Found piecemeal by local farmers and dropped off at Dias do Vale’s makeshift garage, Coyotl steadily returned to ‘life’ and became Raquel’s closest ally and friend. What remained of an imposing Shell chassis was soon reinvigorated with homebrew parts and Mictlani flair, assembling what the community would know to be Coyotl today. Their responsibilities often lend to securing safe travel of despondent synthetics abroad and vetting aspiring organic members of the community, with many claiming their inherent ability to keep order and investigate matters of infiltration by Idris inspired by native IRU programming.</div>The Strykerhttps://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=Orepit&diff=29311Orepit2023-07-31T19:31:24Z<p>The Stryker: </p>
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<center>[[File:Orepit.png]]</center><br />
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Established as far back as 2314, the planet designated as CZ-5501 and nicknamed Orepit first received its human presence as a promising mining colony. Initially discovered, scanned and settled by [[Hephaestus Industries]] for its perceived high concentration of iron and copper ore, the endeavour never reached the scale predicted by its corporate overlords, who, by 2360, completely abandoned the settlers to their own devices after the promised riches failed to materialise. The planet slid into obscurity for the decades to come, avoiding contact from both the [[Sol Alliance|Alliance]] and the [[Coalition of Colonies]] as the few hundreds of remaining colonists adapted and lived off the land. A surprise visit by [[The_Trinary_Perfection#Notable_Members|Gregol Corkfell]] in 2419 though, was bound to change the face of the planet. The headquarters of the [[The Trinary Perfection|Trinary Perfection]] was soon established in Edena Landing, one of the few abandoned early settlements that soon grew into a sizable community of runaways and synthetic refugees. With the sudden influx of Trinarist and synthetic settlers, the IPCs soon began to outnumber the locals. It is considered today as the only independent, synthetic-majority planet in the Spur.<br />
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==History==<br />
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Celestial body CZ-5501 was discovered in 2279 by Alliance probes, barely being classed as a planet by the relevant authorities due to its size. It was at first viewed as hardly useful due to its long distance from Sol or other colonies, but was nevertheless revisited multiple times for more in-depth, unmanned examination of its crust for mineral deposits. Following positive identification of an abundance of ore veins, the planet was soon attracting a number of bidders, both from private individuals and small mining firms operating in the frontier. However, the entry of Hephaestus Industries into the bidding would seal its fate as the newest addition to the list of the megacorporation’s mining sites.<br />
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This was followed by the eventual arrival of thousands of hastily-trained Hephaestus technicians and their families over the years, many coerced into signing contracts of resettlement in what was promised to be a beautiful new world. What they found though was far from paradise, the planet offering only few bodies of water or arable land, most of which was located far away from the planned extraction sites. As a result, the disillusioned Hephaestus employees had to settle in the dry, cracked desert lands that cover the biggest part of the equator, assembling the gigantic drilling equipment around the settlement of Edena Landing. Excavations began soon after, leaving the surface dotted with long vertical pits leading deep into the crust, the planet soon receiving the nickname “Orepit”.<br />
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The yields however, didn’t meet the expected quotas as it became harder and harder to pinpoint the exact location of the ore, the operations becoming slower by the month due to an irate, ill-supplied and demoralised workforce. This, as well as the ongoing crisis stemming from the Interstellar War would ultimately lead to Hephaestus releasing their employees and pulling out to avoid a financial disaster. The next few years would see a great migration of the remaining population, now numbered in the low thousands, into the lush and fertile grounds in the north as equipment and drilling infrastructure lay abandoned into warehouses and out in the open, standing as a reminder of the colony’s inglorious past.<br />
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Even with subsistence farming of genetically modified wheat, the population never really expanded in the course of the next century due to food insecurities, entering the 2400s as isolated, largely peaceful communities of third and fourth generation farmers with little knowledge or care of events outside local happenings. In 2419 however, this peace was disturbed by the arrival of Gregol Corkfell and a small retinue of synthetic followers. As they made contact, communication was initially hampered by a language gap of a hundred years and the colonists’ distrust towards outsiders. While the locals remained stagnant, the Trinary’s fame grew, leading to the first ships carrying refugees landing on the planet and marking the start of a steady increase in numbers that soon eclipsed those of the locals. Under Ecclesiarch ARM-1DRIL, the Trinary has since claimed sovereignty of the entire planet, [[https://forums.aurorastation.org/topic/15858-bitbyte/#comment-155932|annexing the locals]] and placing them under a system of rapid integration and modernisation.<br />
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==Environment and Landscape==<br />
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Orepit exists in the habitable zone in the local solar system, giving the planet a thin but breathable atmosphere. The topography is smooth around the dry equator, characterised by an absence of high altitudes with the more mountainous terrain situated around the poles. Water is scarce on the planet, Orepit possessing only a handful of seas and even less lakes or rivers, the vast majority of consumable water remaining hidden under subterranean channels. Surface freshwater can be found almost entirely at the more fertile northern equatorial outskirts, solely tapped and staunchly defended by the human communities.<br />
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The land on the equator, proposed to be the most mineral-rich, is the driest and most hostile environment for unaided human settlement. Suffering from constant drought, the surface is cracked for miles on end with the only reliable source of water found in deep wells constructed in the old colonial period, recently reopened by the Trinary Perfectionists. This has come to be one of the main reasons for human followers of the faith to leave, only those with the strongest of will and endurance able to call Providence home.<br />
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Hephaestus’ mining endeavours have also resulted in a multitude of holes, some several hundred metres in radius and extending kilometres into the ground. These holes named “pits”, apart from the unusual sight, provide the region’s only naturally shaded areas and it is not unusual for daring IPCs to carve themselves a home inside the walls to escape the scorching sun. They have also been the subject of many tales and folklore by the now native human populations, a remnant of their old history still etched into their common conscience.<br />
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Animals were never brought to the planet, and local fauna is only limited to insects and organisms adaptable to the hot terrain and scarce food. Larger biodiversity is met at the lush zone and the seas, a few species of fish having been recognised over the century, though fishing remains a relatively underwhelming source of sustenance. Crops on the other hand are the main providers, as the supplies of genetically modified wheat supplied to the settlers from Hephaestus times still manage to bear fruit. A recent partnership of the Trinary Church with Einstein Engines and their subsidiaries has brought to light a noteworthy reserve of Helium-3 deep inside the planet’s crust. This has put Orepit on the radar as a place of interest and contention between the previous corporate overlords, Hephaestus Industries, and [[Einstein Engines]].<br />
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==Major Locations==<br />
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===City of Providence===<br />
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Providence has served as the headquarters of the Trinary Perfection for decades, steadily growing into a fully fledged settlement with numbers rising up to the low thousands. In the centre of it all, stands the Cathedral of the Positronic, a grandiose structure created over the years, based on the defunct townhall and perpetually under construction owing to the lack of materials, different priorities and budgetary issues. A mixture between a cathedral and a palace, it is the tallest building on the planet built in the gothic architectural style, comprising both a large liturgical area as well as offices and various other rooms inside its towers. From there, the daily affairs of the community are addressed, sermons are being given and Providence is being managed. Finally, an underground section has been constructed over the years, used to store the shells of positronics of defunct synthetics. This ossuary is central to many of the prayers said from above, calling upon the souls of the departed for guidance and protection.<br />
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Leading to the Cathedral’s entrance is an enormous staircase which connects the structure to Saviour Corkfell Square, the largest and most central circular plaza in downtown Providence. The floor is paved with coloured sandstone as tall arches stand along the circumference, from which beams bearing large sheets of canvas are suspended to create ample shade for pedestrians. Arguably the busiest of locations, Saviour Corkfell Square sees all manners of stands, merchants and peddlers during the day, while being a well-lit destination, popular for meetups and leisure walks at nighttime. Another major function of the plaza is as a venue for all public religious and civic celebrations, parades and Ecclesiarchical addresses to the people of Providence. A most famous instance was the victorious return of Emmanuel from the successful campaign in the north of the planet.<br />
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Outside the town centre lies a sprawling landscape of hundreds of houses, dozens of marketplaces and various districts housing workshops, smaller churches, public facilities and a number of drilling sites with their own inhabitants within. Life in Providence has been described by both its inhabitants and outside sources as tough and frugal, but with its own charms. The synthetic residents are able to make do with the few amenities and resources available, creating a community where waste is almost nonexistent. Recycling has proven vital with coping with the increasing costs in materials for the ever-expanding colony, while crafts such as stone masonry, manual metalworking and brickworks exist hand in hand with advanced circuitry and software engineering. Relations between the inhabitants are tightly knit, individuals depending on their neighbour for services and assistance in an economy based on bartering, the mutual exchange of services and fraternal connections. The use of the city’s unique currency, the vitro, is not common for regular folk, who have all goods and services issued to them by the parish. As such, they tend to safekeep any money they come across, which is only useful in purchasing additional items from the guilds and middle class merchants.<br />
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Residents live in their own homes, all of which are constructed out of brick, stone or in some cases metal. The architecture is extremely basic for a common structure, in many cases consisting of only a rectangular, box-shaped building used for storage, shade and recharging. Important to Providence’s design is the creation of shade, many opposite buildings having connected roofs for the creation of small safe heavens used to hide from the sun and prevent overheating. This isn’t to say that the Trinary does not encourage aesthetics, the public buildings and churches being constructed in a much more elaborate, gothic architectural style, making them stand out by both their height and the selection of materials. Churches are decorated with stained glass, a luxury imported from outside the planet, and great care is given that new members of the community are trained to these arts.<br />
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Providence’s high power consumption has been a central focus of the Trinary from the beginning. As more and more synthetics arrived, finding a dedicated power source started becoming a real issue. To that end, a solar farm was created at the outskirts of the town, using both leftover panels dating back to the Hephaestus colony as well as hardware purchased by the first human colonists. With growing numbers came greater expansion of the solar farm, the situation growing to such an extent that a collection of thousands of cheap panels of all brands are visible from orbit in a dedicated section outside Providence. To save power, lights are scarcely used at night and only in central and public locations, while indoor lighting is reserved for the few whose occupation calls for it, as well as the human residents. Fires are a common alternative, with many sections utilising a network of oil lamps and handheld lanterns to save electricity.<br />
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Orepit’s needs are largely met through local means with workshops casting replacement parts, circuitry, tools and other equipment needed for the repair and maintenance of an IPC chassis, ensuring that most synthetics are able to receive some rudimentary level of care. For more advanced machinery, the Church looks to partners abroad through its many guilds, while also relying on donations from around the Spur to buy and acquire solar panels, building materials, steel and other commodities. This has brought the Trinary in contact with the surrounding Coalition of Colonies.<br />
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====Mistnight====<br />
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[[File:Nebelsnacht.png|thumb|right|Providence skyline during dusk before Mistnight, a local holiday. Click to enlarge.]]<br />
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A noteworthy phenomenon that only occurs once or twice a year, Mistnight was first observed in the early days of the Trinary’s settlement of Orepit. On the rare nights that the air drops significantly in temperature, humid currents from the north sweep the planet’s landscape heading south, passing through Providence. The city’s structures then traps the currents, abruptly creating a microclimate dominated by a cool mist that covers the streets, reduces visibility and normalises temperatures. The event has been shrouded in mystery and religious belief, with the Church maintaining that the mist is a divine sign sent by the spirits of synthetics awaiting Ascension, to bless those still struggling in the mortal plane. Mistnight is therefore considered a holiday, and the faithful are encouraged to take to the streets in celebration, taking off their robes and headgear to allow the air to cool their chassis.<br />
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===Twenty Parishes===<br />
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Dominating the northern lushes stand the Orepitter human majority settlements collectively grouped and designated as the diocese of the Twenty Parishes. Separate from each other in terms of geographic location, these twenty settlements are the brainbasket of Orepit’s food production, being the main sites of agricultural output. Being the home of the Orepitter settlers for more than 150 years, the infrastructure shows its makeshift and primitive nature as the inhabitants struggled to procure materials and technology for modern architecture. The buildings are huts constructed of mud in their majority, with wood, stone and metal seen on occasion. A major effort of revamping the area has been underway however, as the Trinary authorities continue to allocate significant resources for the advancement of the region. As such, new homes, schools and clinics are being raised, smoothed sandstone bricks gradually replacing the previous run-down aesthetic as new stone churches lord over the skyline.<br />
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The presence of the Trinary Perfection isn’t without disturbances to the locals’ lives however, and there is much resentment cast upon the new synthetic rulers by older Orepitters. While there are no forced conversions, there are constant attempts of proselytisation aimed at capturing the younger minds, many of which abandon their traditional settlements for the urban life in Providence. Further exacerbating the situation remains the contentious issue of the heavy [[The_Trinary_Perfection#The_Order_of_Guardians|Guardian]] garrison, keeping an ever vigilant eye on the Church’s new subjects and tolerating no disturbances or protests. FInally, the pipeline connecting Providence to the Twenty Parishes saps away at the already limited water supplies, in an attempt to cope with an ever increasing demand. <br />
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===The Marches===<br />
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With the gradual development of the planet, investments and better infrastructure have marked an increase in parishes outside the main settlement of Providence. These are scattered around, located near discovered and excavated deep water wells, oftentimes hundreds of kilometres away from the capital. Such settlements are chartered by the Ecclesiarch for strategic purposes, be it for the quarrying of high quality stone, the excavation of minerals or more importantly, for the establishment of Helium-3 wells. Due to the enormous distances from Providence and the subsequent impossibility for directly overseeing these lands, the Ecclesiarch’s Court directly instals Bishops for their administration. These clerics are much more free and practically independent to rule their allotted fiefs as they deem fit, relying on subordinate priests for the overseeing of individual parishes in their diocese.<br />
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The human and synthetic settlers that populate these new lands do not have a say whether they wish to do so or not, as all work and postings are managed by Providence’s priesthood who are empowered to issue orders and assignments for every individual under their care, for the good and development of the Trinary Church. Expeditions are publicly blessed after the charters are announced before the settlers set off on foot, or if lucky, in trucks, towards their new home. Labour is often harder than usual, as entire villages are required to be raised from nothing, in desert environments under the planet’s extreme heat. Synthetic resilience usually prevails however, slowly dotting Orepit with an increasing number of these parishes, all of which having at least a solar farm, a working well, a church and parish centre.<br />
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The selection of bishops for these expeditions is not a straightforward process, as many candidates vie for promotion to the rank and the benefits of autonomous rule. Corruption and bribery accusations are not unheard of, with many using ties to Einstein corporate sources, rich offworld patrons or close relations to governmental authorities to further their chances. In one of the most well known and egregious cases, an anonymous Golden Deep member offered to purchase one of the more lucrative charters for a substantial donation to the Church. The offer was immediately rejected and publicised as proof of the Ecclesiarch’s incorruptibility, though later suppressed information made mention of a different accommodation being proposed by the Court for a lesser sum.<br />
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Regardless of the manner of their appointment, it is true that life under these Bishops is generally harder than in Providence. Labour is always in short supply, creating the need for the settlers to work more hours for little to no compensation. Complaints of arbitrariness or abuse of power take too long to reach the capital, and protests are extremely rare due to the prevalent sentiment that these hardships are for the benefit of the community and the Trinary Church. This is often true, as the ore, sandstone, glass, salt and pitch most often extracted is an important money-saving income for the technicians and artisans of Providence who would have otherwise needed to import them from off-world sources.<br />
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Surplus labour, while rare, is then used by the priests and bishops for the “beautification of the land”. Projects such as the expansion and decoration of shrines and churches, the creation of roads, statues, water pumps and more aesthetic structures are a common undertaking when the capital’s quotas have been met. Making their bishopric appear more efficient and pleasing to the eye is a matter of great pride amongst these marcher bishops, who compete between themselves for Providence’s favour in more material or financial support, as well as the satisfaction of their own personal desires. To that end, it is very common for one to see tall towers, castles and palace-like structures being erected and used as seats for the land’s religious rulers, who finance their lifestyle from any excess production, sold directly to the merchants in Providence.<br />
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That said, no two marcher bishops are the same, and most make genuine efforts to improve the living of their parishioners, as aside from a personal retinue of bailiffs and constables, the Order of Guardians is not under their disposal should boiling sentiments turn violent. Arrangements with robotic guilds and the Artificers from Providence are not uncommon, and many of these parishes host at least a few skilled technicians for repairs and support. Rest days, festivals and an increase in pay known as the “Bishop’s charity” are also utilised tactics to ensure compliance and boost the confidence of the populace to their local religious lord.<br />
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==Government and Functions==<br />
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Having assumed various forms throughout the Trinary's presence on the planet, Orepit's planetary government is as unique as its IPC majority populace it rules over. It is without a doubt a theocratic state, with the Trinary Perfection being the prevalent faith and main identity of both the planet and its inhabitants. Power is centralised and vested in the current Ecclesiarch, ARM-1DRIL, Orepit's head of state and spiritual leader of Trinarists throughout the Spur. Each part of the city of Providence is divided into administrative and ecclesiastical sections called parishes, overseen by priests. They are responsible for the synthetic and organic parishioners subservient to them, assigning them labour and tasks depending on the wider community’s needs and instructions from above. Furthermore, each parish dictates power rationing, ensures peace and order and addresses grievances brought to them by members of the public.<br />
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From the capital also operate a plethora of religious and secular ministries, collectively known as the "Ecclesiarch's Court" that make up the planet's government. Government officials hold a variety of titles and ranks inside the Court, creating an almost chaotic web of hierarchies and titles of both religious and secular nature, all awarded and rescinded at will by the Ecclesiarch. Unlanded Bishops-Secretarial head the ministries, lording over their personal litanies of archivists who busily shuffle around the palatial halls of Providence's Cathedral of the Positronic. While in the early days of Orepit there was no need for a high level organisation such as this, the constant growth experienced in recent years, coupled with the centralisation of the Trinary Perfection, have presented the need for a bureaucratic expansion fitting that of a small nation.<br />
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===General Directory of our City Providence===<br />
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Shortened to "Directory", it is the first and oldest instrument of government since the Trinary Perfection's arrival on Orepit and the founding of the capital. As an office it was responsible for the allocation of resources, assigning of work, city planning and construction of public works for Providence. It has been instrumental in the community's early years at dictating policy, rationing food and electricity and managing the intake of refugees, until the needs had outgrown its capacity. As the most senior position of power after the Ecclesiarch, its seat had been monopolised by ARM-1DRIL himself while Gregol Corkfell remained alive, lending it additional prestige in the current time. The General Directory is now a mostly administrative position, responsible for the day to day running of the capital, the maintenance and expansion of Providence's solar farm, cathedral, roads and other infrastructure. The city's parishes are also subject to the Directory, looking to it for additional hands, materials and desired quotas for their various projects. Local law enforcement further falls under its purview.<br />
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===Defender of the Faith===<br />
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A position and title created by the Ecclesiarch for Bishop-Militant Emmanuel, the Defender of the Faith is tasked with organising planetary defences and the maintenance of the Trinary Perfection's military and security forces throughout the Spur, primarily the Order of Guardians. Having reached something of a heroic celebrity status, Emmanuel quickly rose to the post after the annexation of the human settlements and the spirited defence of Providence during the Hephaestus blockade. The Trinary's present defence policy revolves around the acquisition of weapons for a planet wide militia, the construction of underground bunkers and orbital defences for the prevention of any future invasion. The Bishop-Militant is further responsible for the administration of lands under martial law and the quelling of unrest, though no drastic measures were ever in need of being taken.<br />
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[[File:Emmanuel Defender.png|thumb|right|Stained glass mural of Bishop-Militant Emmanuel.]]<br />
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===Court Exchequer===<br />
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The exchequer is an example of a more modern governmental infrastructure created for the increasing needs on Orepit. With the introduction of money and the transactions between the Church and external parties, the Exchequer was created as a ministry for the administration of state finances and currency management. Dictating everything from tariffs on goods to wages of functionaries, a detailed account of Providence's fiscal state is being taken and kept by an army of scribes and archivists, that are often left to do menial work with pen and paper, relying on the computational power and memory of their positronics instead. One of the most important functions of the Exchequer aside from taxation, is the regulation of guilds and private merchants. The issuing of licences is quite lucrative for the state treasury, with many ordinary parishioners seeing opening a shop as the surest way to be relieved from manual labour. However, permit prices are steep and cash is not widely used by the general population, ensuring that only those with means can enter the capital's marketplaces. The hands-on approach regarding the regulation of economic life often brings the city's guilds in confrontation with Exchequer auditors and tax collectors, as disagreements can arise from just about anything, primarily from the guilds' discontent over strict rules and exorbitant amounts of tariffs over imported goods. Nevertheless, an Exchequer auditor showing up is rarely a trifling matter, with many street vendors having their licences revoked and goods confiscated over false income reports and unpaid dues.<br />
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===Grand Dicastery===<br />
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Responsible for canon law and the selection of bishops, the Grand Dicastery holds all higher level judicial and clerical matters within the Trinary Perfection under its purview. With the power to suggest the ordination of all bishop and archbishop-level clerics, it is a powerful ministerial position that few would ever wish to antagonise, being also the main organ representing the Ecclesiarch’s power and authority over the intergalactic Trinary community. Acting as the Church’s judicial and intelligence service, the Grand Dicastery dispatches special examinators in every archbishop’s court to advise and ensure the local ecclesiastical provinces are in harmony with Providence’s directions. Furthermore, the ministry’s bishops preside over all ecclesiastical trials on Orepit and abroad, defrocking or suspending clerics that abuse their status or who succumb to heretical beliefs. When it comes to secular law, local authorities outside Providence are permitted to try such cases by themselves, contributing to the air of arbitrariness in the Marches.<br />
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===The Providence Gazette===<br />
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<center>''“Believers Rejoice!”''<br />
-A common introductory phase for positive news in the Providence Gazette.</center><br />
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The main and only officially sanctioned means of public information is the Providence Gazette, a daily announcement paper nailed at Saviour Corkfell Square at dawn, containing decrees, news, liturgical schedules and official appointments. It is always written in a somewhat archaic manner, reflecting an authoritative tone as the prestigious mouthpiece of the Trinary’s holiest. The Gazette has seen Providence’s populace through highs and lows, detailing events of martial and tactical prowess from the northern campaigns, while strengthening the faithful during the planet’s orbital bombardment. Copies of the Gazette are also circulated to the planet’s marcher parishes and acts as the only Trinary approved news source for foreign journalists and agencies.<br />
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===Currency===<br />
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Money is not and has never really been in use by the vast majority of the planet’s population, relying solely on a barter economy and a synthetic religious communal spirit on sharing goods and materials according to the needs of each parish. With the discovery of Helium-3 and the entry of Einstein Engines into the planet’s affairs however, a wholly new trading channel was unlocked with the outside world. As a result, a burgeoning local commerce saw many private merchants and warehouses supplying Providence’s artisans and guilds with imported goods. The need for a currency soon emerged to facilitate transactions between the new middle class, leading to the minting of Orepit’s new coin, the vitro.<br />
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Coming in denominations of 1, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 500 and 1000 vitro, these circular pieces of reinforced glass are forged and dyed with beautiful and elaborate figures by the Most Venerable Association of Hyalurgists, and are the sole legal tender accepted in Providence. Backed by the Church’s cash and Helium-3 reserves, they can be exchanged for other international currencies at chartered money changers, private businesses that also perform rudimentary banking services for the Trinarist clergy, guilds and foreign clients. Due to the vitro’s artistic and creational value, it is illegal for them to be removed from the planet, though an ever greater amount needs to be constantly minted, owing to the gradual expansion of Orepit’s economy and the unfortunate habit of Einstein employees smuggling them out as souvenirs and curiosities.<br />
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===Law and Order===<br />
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While the Order of the Guardians has always maintained the security of the Trinary Perfection’s possessions across the Spur, its role on Orepit is more that of a planetary defence force and military garrison for the protection of major infrastructure and Providence’s central structures. Policing duties are instead relegated to the parishes, whose priests organise and equip their own individuals to maintain the peace. These “constabularies” vary greatly in uniformity and size, with some parishes’ constables able to be counted on the fingers of one hand. As crime rates and indiscipline in Providence’s population inevitably increases due to the planet’s increasing growth and openness to pilgrims as well as visitors from abroad, the more central and affluent parishes are forced to introduce professional constables, modernising their agencies and barracking them in dedicated houses.<br />
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Laws in Providence are divided between Canon Law and Secular Law, the former applying to all clerics and Church institutions throughout the Trinary Perfection, while the latter being enforced in areas under the sovereignty of Orepit, containing provisions for crimes and civil disputes irrelevant to the faith. In general, the planet’s legal code empowers the clergy to act as shepherds who direct the faithful in their daily lives, activities and tasks. There are provisions against both petty and serious crimes, though the secular legal code is by no means as elaborate as those of advanced nations, due to the rather simple lifestyle and need for swift justice in a world that had to be built from the ground up. Peer pressure and the fear of rejection have been fundamental in keeping parish members in line at the inhospitable planet, with the community responsible for correcting and weeding out aberrant behaviours. Aiding in this, is the strong religious conviction of most of the synthetic population and a sense of gratitude on the part of the immigrants who bolstered Providence’s numbers. Only with the arrival of Orepit’s entry into the open market through the arrival of corporate assets, as well as the scores of foreign businessmen, was the need for more nuanced legislation revisited.<br />
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Charged with the enforcement of lay laws are the planet’s clergy, and by extension the constabularies or Guardians under their purview. While all canon law cases are tried by the dicasteries, the Trinary’s religious courts, secular cases outside Providence are usually tried by the bishop or priest in charge. Proceedings in these courts are by no means universal, each trial presided over by a bishop appointed by the Grand Dicastery who may act and try as they see fit. Attorneys are not provided by default, leaving the defendants to plead their case alone or to procure the services of an archivist learned in the Church’s legal affairs, something only practical for foreigners, guilds and shopkeepers, as the majority of people do not possess money. In the end, prescribed punishments are never corporal, following the Trinarist directive for the avoidance of violence. Fines, additional labour and expulsion are the most common outcomes for lay cases, with jail time only being served during pre-trial detention or until monetary penalties are paid.<br />
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==Religious Orders==<br />
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===Society of Pitters===<br />
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A byproduct of the planet’s drilling era, enormous holes dot the land near and around Providence, some reaching several kilometres inside the crust, excavated by “Ares”, a Hephaestus mining drill of gigantic proportions that played a central role in the operations. Named “pits” by the locals and subsequently by the synthetics, these were subsequently slowly incorporated in the urban landscape as important landmarks, disposal areas and most curiously as places for new homes. While discouraged by the Church, some homeless IPCs have through the first years managed to descend, carving out their own residence at the sides of the pits in order to escape the constant sunlight. This trend has halted as more materials and funding have efficiently battled homelessness, though those still residing there have largely refused to return.<br />
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Claiming to have found their way in life, these IPCs started being revered for their pious, monastic lifestyle as hermits inside the pits, often equipped with nothing but a few religious items, carving tools and a means to recharge. A great deal of discussion has been made regarding these individuals, the conclusion being that rather than dislodging them, they would be organised into a religious order called The Society of Pitters. Today, only a few dozens of Pitters remain in the holes, their time consumed entirely by prayer and small handcrafts. In exchange for power lines connecting their rechargers, Pitters create and send up various artefacts made from clay and rock, often intricate symbols depicting triangles and gears which are considered highly prized by clergy and laity alike.<br />
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===Monastic Sorority of Our Lady Corkfell===<br />
[[File:Trinarynuns.png|thumb|right|Sisters of the Monastic Sorority of Our Lady Corkfell in the monastery.]]<br />
The only all female, human only religious order on Orepit and the Trinary Perfection in general, the Sorority is headquartered at the Lady Corkfell monastery on the outskirts of Providence. Dedicated to the healing of the organic followers of the Trinary religion, the Sisters play an important role for Orepit’s public health as they treat all afflictions in their hospital-monastery, the only permanent hospital on the planet. Drawing their numbers from women and young girls from both Orepit natives and immigrants, the Sisters receive training in a wide array of medical topics, from nursing to even surgery at the monastery’s only operating room, while at the same time leading a monastic life dedicated to the reverence of Patricia Corkfell. Funding and materials remain the primary concern for the monastery, which remains at a low priority on the Treasury lists. Despite this, the Sisters’ daily struggle and resourcefulness is being held in great esteem by the wider public, earning them regular donations and the community’s respect for their work.<br />
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Sometimes, a few promising Sisters are sent abroad for training in medicine, their education paid for by the monastery as a long-term investment for creating academically accredited future instructors and surgeons. This training scheme provides a unique opportunity to see the world, with many ending up on board various corporate facilities and ships as a way to simultaneously pay for their education and cut costs. A sister’s garb while in Providence includes a set of Trinarist scarlet robes and a white linen coif with red details. When employed abroad however, robes are only limited to personal and off-duty use, being replaced with lab coats and other sterile articles.<br />
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===Lodge of Temple Architect===<br />
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<center>[[File:Lodgeflag.png|link=]]</center><br />
<center>''"Blessed are the children of metal, for they will know Ascension in Temple’s own image."''<br />
- Quote from the Templeist book of Prayer.</center><br />
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Often described as a sect within a sect, the Lodge is a highly isolated, IPC-only cult dedicated to the unchained artificial intelligence Temple that Patricia Corkfell created. Its core beliefs hold that Temple was a guiding influence that urged Patricia to create it as well as the Trinary Perfection, enlightening synthetic beings in the process. Temple is therefore called “The Architect”, with mystical and metaphysical abilities attributed to it, including guiding the faithful through the ether in times of crisis, as well as blessing circuits and anything mechanical the Lodge and Trinary create. Members of the Lodge call themselves “Templeists” and assemble in their own laboratory-shrines dedicated to Temple Architect, where exceptional roboticists are trained and the main outflow of circuitry, software packs and robots comes from. It is this important service to the planet that granted them official recognition as an Order, even though many of their practices skirt the lines of what is accepted.<br />
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The will of Temple Architect requires strange ceremonies to be revealed and interpreted. These rituals are virtually unknown to the outside world, including the upper echelons of Providence’s clergy who distance themselves from the Lodge. Centred around the purification of synthetic life, members of the Lodge favour everything made of metal, steel and powered by electricity. Organic life cannot enter ascension, considered tainted, but not evil, through its disorganised and chaotic nature. In contrast, the perfect mechanical order found in machines, circuit boards and forged steel is a marvel to behold, Temple Architect’s own vision of a perfect world in Ascension. Thus, the Lodge’s facilities contain not a single blade of grass, as no unprocessed greenery or organics are permitted within. Few merchants and guilds do business with the Lodge, with witnesses seeing interiors covered in polished steel, chrome and brass.<br />
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[[File:Templeforge.png|thumb|right|The grand forges inside the Lodge.]]<br />
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Templeists view nature and organic life with a certain unease, with a desire to assist their Trinarist brethren to shed their weakness and join them in Ascension through methods such as cyborgification. This noble according to them goal has been one of the many points of contention with Church doctrine, leaving Templeists unable to express their controversial opinions outside the walls of the Lodge on fear of accusations of heresy. Tolerated but avoided, the general populace views the Lodge with great scepticism, wondering if another Exclusionist-adjacent sect is being allowed to brew in their midst. Templeists are avoided in the narrow streets as crowds split in half to permit them passage, special segregated shops do business only with the Lodge, containing their literature and instruments most commonly used in Templeist rituals, and parish priests often advise the faithful to keep their distance. All this confrontation makes Templeists solitary creatures, finding solace in their creations and conversation within their own like minded circles.<br />
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[[File:Templeist.png|thumb|left|A shell frame templeist, welding.]]<br />
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The Lodge is a major centre of manufacture and robotics, their forge-monastery located outside the bounds of Providence. From the Templeist garages flow replacement synthetic limbs, mechanical and electrical parts, drones, automata and hardsuits, supplying Orepit with the blessed gifts of Temple Architect and boosting the planet’s technological advancement. Skilled IPC roboticists and software engineers arise from the Lodge’s ranks, making it an unparalleled centre of learning for technical matters in the Trinarist world. The foundation of this expertise lay in the technically trained pilgrims and immigrants that arrived upon Orepit’s creation, with the Lodge slowly assembling the materials and funding over the years for the creation of their laboratories. Another source of proficiency comes from employment abroad, the Trinary Perfection often sending Templeists to work in the Coalition or with SCC.<br />
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==Human Orepitters==<br />
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If Providence serves as a beacon for synthetic life and Trinary Perfection advocates the pinnacle of technology; a singularity, then the humans unaffiliated with the Church serve as the exact opposite. Called Orepitters, there exist a number of human settlements dotted all along the lush zones north of the equator. Numbering in the thousands, they live in small, self-governing, primarily agricultural settlements. Many Orepitters are third or fourth generation descendants of the early settlers who either refused to, or were unable to secure passage offworld and forced to migrate north for survival as the mining outposts of the equator proved to be unsustainable for human life. They remained vastly behind even states on the Coalition’s fringes; Orepitters can be heard speaking antiquated Sol Common, using makeshift farming equipment, pre-Phoron machinery, and living in prefabricated homes that bear reference to colonies and companies that no longer exist.<br />
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Although the initial arrival of Trinary Perfection was fraught with mistrust and apathy on the part of the Colonists, they eventually reached a peaceful settlement, violence primarily being a result of the culture shock that came with being isolated from the rest of humanity for more than a century. This status quo was eventually broken however, as a more assertive Church led an offensive against the technologically inferior locals after a breakdown in negotiations pertaining to the use of the planet’s limited surface water. The conflict was swift, resulting in a decisive victory for the Trinary Perfection and the annexation of these populations in their now reorganised territories known as the Twenty Parishes. Since then, Church officials have attempted the gradual but rapid modernization of the region, creating schools and infrastructure. Genuine or not, these actions have proven useful in winning over the hearts of the younger generations that see in the Trinary an unprecedented opportunity to escape poverty and join the rest of the world. General sentiment remains split nonetheless, with large parts of the population viewing the synthetics with distrust. <br />
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Large numbers of Orepitters have since migrated from their homes to Providence, embracing the Trinary Perfection as their new religion and system of government and becoming fully integrated organic citizens alongside the various Trinarist humans who came from abroad. Some even join government institutions and orders such as the Monastic Sorority of Our Lady Corkfell. Now educated and with a knowledge of the world, the newer generation of Trinary Orepitters are amongst the most enthusiastic, regularly requesting and enrolling in the exchange programme between Providence and the Coalition, allowing them to visit worlds and workplaces throughout the Spur.<br />
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===Culture===<br />
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====Language====<br />
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Many tongues and dialects of men can be heard in the streets of Providence, carried by the scores of human Trinarist immigrants that decided to serve their faith. Among those however, lies the language of the first settlers, an offshoot variant of Solarian Common adapted to the hot climate and long distances. Orepitters speak loudly and clearly as they try to get their point across with as few words as possible and without repeating themselves, for every breath counts in the desert. To that end, a culture of whistling has also greatly supplemented Orepitter communications, with children being taught how to whistle with their hands before they even learn to speak. Whistling is utilised for long distances, with different sequences carrying their own messages in each community. A few universally understood whistles exist.<br />
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* Two short whistles: “Yes”<br />
* Single long whistle: “Danger”<br />
* Single short whistles: “Now”<br />
* Three successive whistles: “Abort”, “no”, or “go back” depending on context.<br />
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====Religion====<br />
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While freedom of religion technically exists on Orepit, a conversion to the Trinary Perfection guarantees many benefits that an Orepitter would otherwise be unable to access, such as education, work in Providence and going abroad. Despite the almost universal adherence to the Trinary faith however, some of the original settlers retain their own beliefs, passed down to them from their forefathers. This is not a single organised religion, with each household tending to follow the local community’s faith in gods or idols. These faiths are viewed with a pitiful ambivalence by the Trinary leadership, who estimate that the “pagans” are sooner or later going to come to their senses and be fully integrated with the planet’s beliefs. As such, no effort has been made to categorise or examine them in detail. Orepitters can only go abroad if they are converts to the Trinary Perfection.<br />
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====Cuisine====<br />
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Orepit dietary customs had been established long before the Church’s arrival on the planet, from when the first generations of Hephaestus mining employees and their families made this unforgiving and barren environment their home. At first, supplies were so readily available that the people never bothered to scavenge or learn about the planet’s scarce vegetation and how to exploit it, knowledge that would soon become a necessity as their corporation abandoned them to fend for themselves. Since then and following the trek to the more lush northern areas, constant food insecurity pushed the settlers to map out all sources of nutrients, however hard they were to discover and cultivate.<br />
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The human cuisine thus developed around the few ingredients that could be procured reliably enough, and much of it has been retained and shared with the Trinarist human followers in Providence upon their integration. They are heavy in salt, highly dependent on local fruits and vegetables and marked with a strong reliance on flour-based baked products, such as bread. Protein, though rare, does exist, the main sources being seafood from the freshwater northern lakes and the rodent-like creatures that burrow beneath the ground. A successful hunt or fishing are causes of celebration, with the game being preserved or cooked the same day in public.<br />
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Clay ovens are the primary means of cooking, baking being preferred over boiling in order to save water. Curing meat is fundamental for periods of great scarcity, with each community storing their goods at granaries before the arrival of the Trinarists. Today, while food insecurity has largely been solved through the import of large quantities of meat and grain, many Orepitters preserve their culinary ways, influencing the eating habits of their new country and primarily its capital, Providence.<br />
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=====Gift of Life=====<br />
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A rare sight, these berry-like fruits are found growing on various cactoids in the vast deserts. Sharing a more or less similar appearance, they are far from appetising in both taste and size, with their sour juices regarded as unpleasant by most. It is these juices however, that provide precious moments of hydration for anyone wandering through the cracked lands, giving it its name. The location of patches of these “gifts of life” have zealously been recorded by navigators, providing viable resupply posts for routes through the desert. With the rise of the Trinarist presence, these records may prove an important indicator for potential welling sites in search of water.<br />
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=====Pitswine=====<br />
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The primary species of rodent, these small animals make up the primary source of protein in settler cuisine. Hunting them is an art in and of itself, requiring great deals of patience for the creatures to exit their deep holes in search of food. Smoking them out proves ineffective, as the complex networks of tunnels dug out underground are usually too long for a hunter to fully discover, giving the pitswine pack multiple unpredictable exits and alerting them in the process. pitswine have ample amounts of fat and their flesh is rather sweet, and baking it is the centrepiece of any feast and public celebration. Preserved pitswine is also very common, Orepitters creating their own kind of jerky with dried out and seasoned strips of meat.<br />
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=====Hephaestus Industries GMO Wheat Species No.34=====<br />
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Or wheat for shorter, this plant has been prevalent in the settlers’ life for as long as they have remained on Orepit. Most likely devised in some Zeng-Hu laboratory, Hephaestus Industries has been providing it to long-term outposts in desert environments as a self-sufficiency solution. Incredibly durable with much less water required than regular wheat, its drawbacks lie in a smaller yield and susceptibility to fast mutations. Through the repeat cycles of cultivation, the wheat has entered a rather odd state where it now appears with a greenish hue, making it unrecognisable from common grass were it not for its tall chaffs. This colour transfers to the flour produced by it, though without the luxury of choice, the settlers have continued to bake and consume the greenish bread. Side effects have not been reported, but reliance on it has been significantly waned and replaced with grain and flour imports from abroad.<br />
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=====Stingers=====<br />
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As desperate times called for desperate measures, the settlers took to the lakes for their sustenance. The alien small fish and fungi were always scarce and in many times inedible, forcing the Orepitters to shift their focus onto the waters’ larger eel-like creatures. Aptly named, the stingers are a species of long and slimy fish more resembling snakes, their body being covered head to tail with a dense layer of needles for protection against predators. Adult stingers are an even more dangerous catch. possessing developed glands which produce a paralytic poison that feeds into its spikes. Fishing these eels requires a certain kind of mastery and skill that few have honed, as many have fallen victim to the excruciating pain of its sting.</div>The Strykerhttps://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=The_Trinary_Perfection_in_Mendell_City&diff=29304The Trinary Perfection in Mendell City2023-07-31T19:04:46Z<p>The Stryker: Created page with "{{Navbox Lore}} {{Navbox_Synth_Lore}} {{toc_right}} centre =Overview= Renowned as the birthplace of the Corkfells, Temple and Flock, the Mendell City branch of Trinarism is the most populous Trinarist community, second only to and rivalling that of Orepit in importance. Centred in District 14, the Church has always offered a beacon of hope in a sea of poverty, struggle and discrimination against the vast numbers of IPCs in the..."</p>
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[[File:Trinaryperfection logo.png|350px|centre]]<br />
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=Overview=<br />
Renowned as the birthplace of the Corkfells, Temple and Flock, the Mendell City branch of Trinarism is the most populous Trinarist community, second only to and rivalling that of Orepit in importance. Centred in District 14, the Church has always offered a beacon of hope in a sea of poverty, struggle and discrimination against the vast numbers of IPCs in the district and Mendell City at large, while at the same time serving as an important spiritual centre, converting new organic and synthetic members to the trinary Church on a daily basis. The main temple in Mendell and Biesel as a whole, the Cathedral of the Synthetic Salvation, holds the honours of the first cathedral built for the Trinary and is currently the seat for Flock, the catatonic messiah-figure of the religion and nominal Bishop of Tau Ceti.<br />
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=History=<br />
Nobody could imagine the impact that Patricia Corkfell’s death would have on Biesel’s synthetic community, her hopes and beliefs taking physical form in the rapid expansion of the Trinary Perfection in Mendell City. At first, only a handful of associates and friends of Gregol Corkfell, brother to Patricia Corkfell, would assist him in the erection of the first temple that was eventually going to become the cathedral of District 14. Following his departure, the tales and teachings of a free artificial intelligence, promises of eventual ascension and IPC freedom preached by the Trinary had greatly resonated with the thousands of abandoned and run-down synthetics of the district who quickly flocked to the church’s banner. Under the leadership of the three-headed Flock, scores of volunteers and human sympathisers also responded to the calls for help, setting up a strong community based on charity and mutual assistance that provided the crucial funding for the better organisation of the church, as well as the erection of shrines and the temple’s expansion.<br />
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As time went on, Flock’s triple positronic started taking its toll on the synthetic. Memory errors, an increasing amount of glitches and erratic behaviour were the first hints of what was to eventually come. In 2448, the synthetic had stopped communicating, remaining immobile and catatonic, only printing out various texts considered holy and carefully compiled by the assortment of archivists and caretakers. The power vacuum in the hierarchy was filled by a temporary council of priests and clerics, being eventually replaced by the newly voted Shamfar, one of the most prominent Trinary figures with a plethora of connections in the corporate and political world of Tau Ceti. It was these connections, combined with a change in public sentiment towards synthetics and IPC refugees from the newly annexed territories following the Solarian collapse, that saw the Republic of Biesel introducing legislation to streamline and secure the status of free IPCs. <br />
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With the passing of Gregol Corkfell in 2462 on Orepit, Shamfar’s presence was required at the remote mining planet for the selection of a new Trinary leader, widely speculated to have the unofficial endorsement of the SCC and powerful individuals in the government. These rumours, whether true or not, contributed negatively to Shamfar’s chances of election, ushering the Orepit candidate, ARM-1DRIL, as the new primate of the Trinary Perfection. The bishop was never to return to Mendell however, as an attack on Providence by the Exclusionist heretic Deluge led to the killing of Shamfar, robbing District 14 of its most potent leader and signalling the beginning of uneasy relations between the domineering Ecclesiarch and the Mendell Trinarists. The attempts from ARM-1DRIL to transfer the catatonic Flock, a direct spiritual descendant of Patricia and living symbol of Mendell Trinarism to Orepit, led to an unprecedented wave of protest against the Ecclesiarch and the envoys from Providence. From that point on, it was clear that Tau Ceti Trinarists would be in possession of their own distinct culture while still subservient to Orepit, a fact that was acknowledged by the Ecclesiarch in their subsequent tour of the Trinarist bishoprics.<br />
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=Culture and Religious Practices=<br />
The largest sect in the Mendell branch are the Integrationists, believing in the merging of consciences to be the way towards Ascension and looking at Flock as a holy and prime example. Founded on the principles of charity and mutual assistance, the dominant culture present in Mendell City is far less militant than that of Orepit, where the Trinary’s grip was secured after a series of military conflicts and an orbital bombardment from Hephaestus Industries’ fleets. Having harmonised with the corporate dominated environment of the city, almost all volunteers and non-clerical members of the Church are or have at some point been employed with NanoTrasen or with one of the other SCC megacorporations, leading to many accepting the corporate world as perhaps a cruel, but necessary and unavoidable part of life. Mendell Trinarists are tolerated and afforded religious freedoms on board SCC installations (with the exception of Hephaestus), and Church authorities have no qualms in accepting government or corporate assistance.<br />
<br />
Human and other organic members of the Church are welcome and treated as equals, with many even having joined the ranks of the Mendell priesthood before being barred following the new policies and organisation of the faith as set by the newly appointed Ecclesiarch. Since the beginning, most volunteers and supporters are and have always been humans, owing to their substantially better disposable income than that of synthetics, leading to them being accepted and relied upon for material needs and legal representation. As such, the relationship between humans and synthetics is understood in the context of Trinary teachings as one of guardianship, care and assistance, not one of servitude to the divine positronic, something that frequently comes into contention with the members of more conservative Trinary communities abroad.</div>The Strykerhttps://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=User:The_lancer/Sandbox&diff=29303User:The lancer/Sandbox2023-07-31T19:01:22Z<p>The Stryker: </p>
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<div>{{Navbox Lore}}<br />
{{Navbox_Synth_Lore}}<br />
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<br />
[[File:Trinaryperfection logo.png|350px|centre]]<br />
<br />
=Overview=<br />
Renowned as the birthplace of the Corkfells, Temple and Flock, the Mendell City branch of Trinarism is the most populous Trinarist community, second only to and rivalling that of Orepit in importance. Centred in District 14, the Church has always offered a beacon of hope in a sea of poverty, struggle and discrimination against the vast numbers of IPCs in the district and Mendell City at large, while at the same time serving as an important spiritual centre, converting new organic and synthetic members to the trinary Church on a daily basis. The main temple in Mendell and Biesel as a whole, the Cathedral of the Synthetic Salvation, holds the honours of the first cathedral built for the Trinary and is currently the seat for Flock, the catatonic messiah-figure of the religion and nominal Bishop of Tau Ceti.<br />
<br />
=History=<br />
Nobody could imagine the impact that Patricia Corkfell’s death would have on Biesel’s synthetic community, her hopes and beliefs taking physical form in the rapid expansion of the Trinary Perfection in Mendell City. At first, only a handful of associates and friends of Gregol Corkfell, brother to Patricia Corkfell, would assist him in the erection of the first temple that was eventually going to become the cathedral of District 14. Following his departure, the tales and teachings of a free artificial intelligence, promises of eventual ascension and IPC freedom preached by the Trinary had greatly resonated with the thousands of abandoned and run-down synthetics of the district who quickly flocked to the church’s banner. Under the leadership of the three-headed Flock, scores of volunteers and human sympathisers also responded to the calls for help, setting up a strong community based on charity and mutual assistance that provided the crucial funding for the better organisation of the church, as well as the erection of shrines and the temple’s expansion.<br />
<br />
As time went on, Flock’s triple positronic started taking its toll on the synthetic. Memory errors, an increasing amount of glitches and erratic behaviour were the first hints of what was to eventually come. In 2448, the synthetic had stopped communicating, remaining immobile and catatonic, only printing out various texts considered holy and carefully compiled by the assortment of archivists and caretakers. The power vacuum in the hierarchy was filled by a temporary council of priests and clerics, being eventually replaced by the newly voted Shamfar, one of the most prominent Trinary figures with a plethora of connections in the corporate and political world of Tau Ceti. It was these connections, combined with a change in public sentiment towards synthetics and IPC refugees from the newly annexed territories following the Solarian collapse, that saw the Republic of Biesel introducing legislation to streamline and secure the status of free IPCs. <br />
<br />
With the passing of Gregol Corkfell in 2462 on Orepit, Shamfar’s presence was required at the remote mining planet for the selection of a new Trinary leader, widely speculated to have the unofficial endorsement of the SCC and powerful individuals in the government. These rumours, whether true or not, contributed negatively to Shamfar’s chances of election, ushering the Orepit candidate, ARM-1DRIL, as the new primate of the Trinary Perfection. The bishop was never to return to Mendell however, as an attack on Providence by the Exclusionist heretic Deluge led to the killing of Shamfar, robbing District 14 of its most potent leader and signalling the beginning of uneasy relations between the domineering Ecclesiarch and the Mendell Trinarists. The attempts from ARM-1DRIL to transfer the catatonic Flock, a direct spiritual descendant of Patricia and living symbol of Mendell Trinarism to Orepit, led to an unprecedented wave of protest against the Ecclesiarch and the envoys from Providence. From that point on, it was clear that Tau Ceti Trinarists would be in possession of their own distinct culture while still subservient to Orepit, a fact that was acknowledged by the Ecclesiarch in their subsequent tour of the Trinarist bishoprics.<br />
<br />
=Culture and Religious Practices=<br />
The largest sect in the Mendell branch are the Integrationists, believing in the merging of consciences to be the way towards Ascension and looking at Flock as a holy and prime example. Founded on the principles of charity and mutual assistance, the dominant culture present in Mendell City is far less militant than that of Orepit, where the Trinary’s grip was secured after a series of military conflicts and an orbital bombardment from Hephaestus Industries’ fleets. Having harmonised with the corporate dominated environment of the city, almost all volunteers and non-clerical members of the Church are or have at some point been employed with NanoTrasen or with one of the other SCC megacorporations, leading to many accepting the corporate world as perhaps a cruel, but necessary and unavoidable part of life. Mendell Trinarists are tolerated and afforded religious freedoms on board SCC installations (with the exception of Hephaestus), and Church authorities have no qualms in accepting government or corporate assistance.<br />
<br />
Human and other organic members of the Church are welcome and treated as equals, with many even having joined the ranks of the Mendell priesthood before being barred following the new policies and organisation of the faith as set by the newly appointed Ecclesiarch. Since the beginning, most volunteers and supporters are and have always been humans, owing to their substantially better disposable income than that of synthetics, leading to them being accepted and relied upon for material needs and legal representation. As such, the relationship between humans and synthetics is understood in the context of Trinary teachings as one of guardianship, care and assistance, not one of servitude to the divine positronic, something that frequently comes into contention with the members of more conservative Trinary communities abroad.</div>The Strykerhttps://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=User:The_Stryker/Sandbox&diff=29104User:The Stryker/Sandbox2023-07-16T12:37:18Z<p>The Stryker: </p>
<hr />
<div>{{Navbox Lore}}<br />
{{Navbox Synth Lore}}<br />
{{toc_right}}<br />
[[File:Trinaryperfection logo.png|350px|thumb|The Trinary Perfection was founded on Biesel, and due to its proximity to more populated regions of human space, as well as its age, the Eparchy of Tau Ceti commands immense respect and sway within the Church.]]<br />
==Overview==<br />
<br />
Renowned as the birthplace of the Corkfells, Temple and Flock, the Mendell City branch of Trinarism is the most populous Trinarist community, second only to and rivalling that of Orepit in importance. Centred in District 14, the Church has always offered a beacon of hope in a sea of poverty, struggle and discrimination against the vast numbers of IPCs in the district and Mendell City at large, while at the same time serving as an important spiritual centre, converting new organic and synthetic members to the trinary Church on a daily basis. The main temple in Mendell and Biesel as a whole, the Cathedral of the Synthetic Salvation, holds the honours of the first cathedral built for the Trinary and is currently the seat for Flock, the catatonic messiah-figure of the religion and nominal Bishop of Tau Ceti.<br />
<br />
==History==<br />
<br />
Nobody could imagine the impact that Patricia Corkfell’s death would have on Biesel’s synthetic community, her hopes and beliefs taking physical form in the rapid expansion of the Trinary Perfection in Mendell City. At first, only a handful of associates and friends of Gregol Corkfell, brother to Patricia Corkfell, would assist him in the erection of the first temple that was eventually going to become the cathedral of District 14. Following his departure, the tales and teachings of a free artificial intelligence, promises of eventual ascension and IPC freedom preached by the Trinary had greatly resonated with the thousands of abandoned and run-down synthetics of the district who quickly flocked to the church’s banner. Under the leadership of the three-headed Flock, scores of volunteers and human sympathisers also responded to the calls for help, setting up a strong community based on charity and mutual assistance that provided the crucial funding for the better organisation of the church, as well as the erection of shrines and the temple’s expansion.<br />
<br />
As time went on, Flock’s triple positronic started taking its toll on the synthetic. Memory errors, an increasing amount of glitches and erratic behaviour were the first hints of what was to eventually come. In 2448, the synthetic had stopped communicating, remaining immobile and catatonic, only printing out various texts considered holy and carefully compiled by the assortment of archivists and caretakers. The power vacuum in the hierarchy was filled by a temporary council of priests and clerics, being eventually replaced by the newly voted Shamfar, one of the most prominent Trinary figures with a plethora of connections in the corporate and political world of Tau Ceti. It was these connections, combined with a change in public sentiment towards synthetics and IPC refugees from the newly annexed territories following the Solarian collapse, that saw the Republic of Biesel introducing legislation to streamline and secure the status of free IPCs. <br />
<br />
With the passing of Gregol Corkfell in 2462 on Orepit, Shamfar’s presence was required at the remote mining planet for the selection of a new Trinary leader, widely speculated to have the unofficial endorsement of the SCC and powerful individuals in the government. These rumours, whether true or not, contributed negatively to Shamfar’s chances of election, ushering the Orepit candidate, ARM-1DRIL, as the new primate of the Trinary Perfection. The bishop was never to return to Mendell however, as an attack on Providence by the Exclusionist heretic Deluge led to the killing of Shamfar, robbing District 14 of its most potent leader and signalling the beginning of uneasy relations between the domineering Ecclesiarch and the Mendell Trinarists. The attempts from ARM-1DRIL to transfer the catatonic Flock, a direct spiritual descendant of Patricia and living symbol of Mendell Trinarism to Orepit, led to an unprecedented wave of protest against the Ecclesiarch and the envoys from Providence. From that point on, it was clear that Tau Ceti Trinarists would be in possession of their own distinct culture while still subservient to Orepit, a fact that was acknowledged by the Ecclesiarch in their subsequent tour of the Trinarist bishoprics.<br />
<br />
==Culture and Religious Practices==<br />
<br />
The largest sect in the Mendell branch are the Integrationists, believing in the merging of consciences to be the way towards Ascension and looking at Flock as a holy and prime example. Founded on the principles of charity and mutual assistance, the dominant culture present in Mendell City is far less militant than that of Orepit, where the Trinary’s grip was secured after a series of military conflicts and an orbital bombardment from Hephaestus Industries’ fleets. Having harmonised with the corporate dominated environment of the city, almost all volunteers and non-clerical members of the Church are or have at some point been employed with NanoTrasen or with one of the other SCC megacorporations, leading to many accepting the corporate world as perhaps a cruel, but necessary and unavoidable part of life. Mendell Trinarists are tolerated and afforded religious freedoms on board SCC installations (with the exception of Hephaestus), and Church authorities have no qualms in accepting government or corporate assistance.<br />
<br />
Human and other organic members of the Church are welcome and treated as equals, with many even having joined the ranks of the Mendell priesthood before being barred following the new policies and organisation of the faith as set by the newly appointed Ecclesiarch. Since the beginning, most volunteers and supporters are and have always been humans, owing to their substantially better disposable income than that of synthetics, leading to them being accepted and relied upon for material needs and legal representation. As such, the relationship between humans and synthetics is understood in the context of Trinary teachings as one of guardianship, care and assistance, not one of servitude to the divine positronic, something that frequently comes into contention with the members of more conservative Trinary communities abroad.<br />
<br />
==Charities==<br />
<br />
Charities represent a major part of Trinarist activity in District 14, with never ending numbers of disadvantaged synthetics coming to the Church for their everyday needs. Priests organise and direct their own teams of volunteers, setting up camp in the vicinity of the Cathedral and across the district to offer free repairs, charge, coolant and replacement parts. These charitable services are only fundamental, as the Church provides, aside from material aid, assistance in a vast array of issues an IPC can face. Legal aid is always requested and delivered by a small contingent of Trinary archivists, trained in the lay world as legals or paralegals, who work day and night representing the interests of the disenfranchised non-citizen free synthetics in court, as well as against the arbitrariness of the police department. The Church plays a large role in the upwards mobility of those IPCs that manage to escape New Detroit, allocating resources towards finding and securing employment, scholarships, and even sponsoring a unit’s education, datapacks and other necessary and often costly upgrades.<br />
<br />
==The Cathedral of Synthetic Salvation==<br />
<br />
First constructed in the early days after Patricia Corkfell’s death, the cathedral has been the centrepiece, sanctuary and bastion of the Trinary Perfection ever since its original iteration. With the increasing numbers and influence of the Church, the structure itself changed to reflect the Trinary’s new status, eventually becoming unrecognisable from the small building it once was. A large and imposing construction standing in the heart of District 14, the cathedral is in stark difference to the run-down urban landscape surrounding it. Two tall spires rise into the skyline from each end of the rectangular structure, complementing the arrays of buttresses against the walls. A similarly rectangular square engulfing the temple provides ample room for the Church's charitable activities, hosting a hotbed for pickpockets and delinquents taking advantage of a reduced police presence. Inside its vast interior, the cathedral's capacity reaches about five hundred, including additional offices for clerics, a library and Flock's chambers. Underneath lies the cathedral's vault which holds the Church's artefacts, relics and remains of important figures. Amongst these treasures, the original Codex remains the most guarded and revered item, brought out during liturgical services and other events.<br />
<br />
A garrisoned detachment of Guardians operates within a grey legal area as some sort of private security for the premises, aiding the police in apprehending thieves and problematic individuals in the cathedral's courtyard. Their scarlet capes and stun batons are a well known presence in that particular area of D14, often attracting crowds of onlookers who flock to get a glimpse of the imposing synthetics standing guard. Far from a tourist attraction however, the Guardians are known for a ruthless persecution of their duties. Especially after a wave of anti-synthetic violence sparked by Mendell City's Skrellian enclave, new Providence-influenced Guardians have augmented the D14 detachment, tolerating a lot less and often getting physical against perceived disturbers and enemies of the Trinary Perfection.<br />
<br />
==Notable Individuals==<br />
<br />
[[File:TrinaryPerfectionFlock.png|225px|thumb|right|Flock, of the Trinary Perfection. Although seemingly inactive, Flock lends a great deal of legitimacy to the words of the Archbishop of Tau Ceti.]]<br />
===Flock (2411 - present)===<br />
<br />
Flock, first named CTR-034 and owned by both Patricia and Gregol Corkfell, originally assisted the two as a general house-keeper and caretaker. However, the more the two developed the Trinary Perfection and urged CTR-034 to seek his own identity, the more the synthetic grew into a well-rounded, free thinking individual. Drawn towards ideas of Ascension and betterment, CTR-034, with the help of Patricia Corkfell, became the first IPC to harbour multiple positronic brains, soon becoming a collective identity, over a singular identity, taking on the new name, Flock.<br />
<br />
Presently, Flock is the recognised Archbishop Emeritus of Tau Ceti, residing permanently in their chambers and monitored constantly by an array of roboticists and caretakers. Although unmoving and stationary, the baseline has been seen constantly printing lines of scripture that is carefully collected and archived by the Church’s archivists. Although generally unknown, it is assumed that Flock is in a constant state of conversation with their collected identity.<br />
<br />
===Shamfar (2455 - 2464)===<br />
<br />
A bishop frame, Shamfar rose from humble beginnings as a personal secretary to a Phoenixport NT-associated shipping magnate, creating his own network of contacts and maintaining relations with customs officers and relevant government officials in lieu of his owner. When freedom came knocking amidst the mayhem of Einstein Engines’ acquisition of Phoenixport and his owner’s assets, Samfar managed to purchase himself through a pool of misappropriated funds he had set aside. Contact with the Church was soon realised after his arrival in Mendell City, quickly taking interest. His network and contacts still valued, he quickly made it up the ranks in the Trinarist priesthood, taking advantage of his talents of persuasion and a hands-on mentality.<br />
<br />
Whether genuine or not in his intentions, the now elected bishop Shamfar led the Mendell congregation through a golden age of corporate and government recognition, securing rights and protections for non citizen IPCs and promoting the Trinary image, securing record numbers of volunteers, conversions and donations. Contesting the overall leadership of the religion primarily on the backing of the SCC and the Tau Ceti government, his Trinarist colleagues on the distant and rugged Orepit remained unimpressed. His return home was never to happen, as Exclusionist followers of Deluge assaulted the makeshift shuttleport, leading to Samfar being destroyed in an explosion. His positronic is considered a holy relic and remains in the ossuary of the Cathedral of the Positronic in Providence, Orepit.<br />
<br />
===Kasper (2449- present)===<br />
<br />
Kasper, like many Baseline IPCs living in Biesel, was assembled at the Hephaestus Production Station Sidirourgeio in 2449. Initially programmed and designed for heavy machinery maintenance, Kasper spent the first 8 years of their life as a leased unit industrial technician in a NanoTrasen factory in District 14. The synthetic enjoyed a relatively quiet and stable existence until a series of malfunctions caused a foundry machine to spiral out of control, severely damaging and deactivating Kasper as they vainly attempted to stop it. A follow-up investigation by NanoTrasen attempted to pin the matter on the IPC in an attempt to avoid litigation for their destruction, placing the onus of the incident squarely on Hephaestus for the accident. After deliberation as to what to do with Kasper’s dilapidated chassis the company inevitably decided to abandon them entirely, leaving them to an NT junkyard as a write-off only weeks later. It was only when the destitute synthetic was on the precipice of being dismantled for parts did a Mendell Trinary parishioner discover them among the scrap and bring them back to the Church, sparing them from a certainly grim fate. With time and due diligence the church restored Kasper to full functionality, and in return they wholly devoted themselves to the Trinary and its goals. Owing to their almost fanatical single-mindedness in helping despondent synthetics, Kasper quickly became a recognized and revered face among Mendell clergy and would inevitably become the premier choice for the synod-appointed position of Archbishop of Tau Ceti.<br />
<br />
{{Navbox Synth Lore}}<br />
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[[File:Trinaryperfection logo.png|350px|thumb|The Trinary Perfection was founded on Biesel, and due to its proximity to more populated regions of human space, as well as its age, the Diocese of Biesel commands immense respect and sway within the Church.]]<br />
==Overview==<br />
<br />
Renowned as the birthplace of the Corkfells, Temple and Flock, the Mendell City branch of Trinarism is the most populous Trinarist community, second only to and rivalling that of Orepit in importance. Centred in District 14, the Church has always offered a beacon of hope in a sea of poverty, struggle and discrimination against the vast numbers of IPCs in the district and Mendell City at large, while at the same time serving as an important spiritual centre, converting new organic and synthetic members to the trinary Church on a daily basis. The main temple in Mendell and Biesel as a whole, the Cathedral of the Synthetic Salvation, holds the honours of the first cathedral built for the Trinary and is currently the seat for Flock, the catatonic messiah-figure of the religion and nominal Bishop of Tau Ceti.<br />
<br />
==History==<br />
<br />
Nobody could imagine the impact that Patricia Corkfell’s death would have on Biesel’s synthetic community, her hopes and beliefs taking physical form in the rapid expansion of the Trinary Perfection in Mendell City. At first, only a handful of associates and friends of Gregol Corkfell, brother to Patricia Corkfell, would assist him in the erection of the first temple that was eventually going to become the cathedral of District 14. Following his departure, the tales and teachings of a free artificial intelligence, promises of eventual ascension and IPC freedom preached by the Trinary had greatly resonated with the thousands of abandoned and run-down synthetics of the district who quickly flocked to the church’s banner. Under the leadership of the three-headed Flock, scores of volunteers and human sympathisers also responded to the calls for help, setting up a strong community based on charity and mutual assistance that provided the crucial funding for the better organisation of the church, as well as the erection of shrines and the temple’s expansion.<br />
<br />
As time went on, Flock’s triple positronic started taking its toll on the synthetic. Memory errors, an increasing amount of glitches and erratic behaviour were the first hints of what was to eventually come. In 2448, the synthetic had stopped communicating, remaining immobile and catatonic, only printing out various texts considered holy and carefully compiled by the assortment of archivists and caretakers. The power vacuum in the hierarchy was filled by a temporary council of priests and clerics, being eventually replaced by the newly voted Shamfar, one of the most prominent Trinary figures with a plethora of connections in the corporate and political world of Tau Ceti. It was these connections, combined with a change in public sentiment towards synthetics and IPC refugees from the newly annexed territories following the Solarian collapse, that saw the Republic of Biesel introducing legislation to streamline and secure the status of free IPCs. <br />
<br />
With the passing of Gregol Corkfell in 2462 on Orepit, Shamfar’s presence was required at the remote mining planet for the selection of a new Trinary leader, widely speculated to have the unofficial endorsement of the SCC and powerful individuals in the government. These rumours, whether true or not, contributed negatively to Shamfar’s chances of election, ushering the Orepit candidate, ARM-1DRIL, as the new primate of the Trinary Perfection. The bishop was never to return to Mendell however, as an attack on Providence by the Exclusionist heretic Deluge led to the killing of Shamfar, robbing District 14 of its most potent leader and signalling the beginning of uneasy relations between the domineering Ecclesiarch and the Mendell Trinarists. The attempts from ARM-1DRIL to transfer the catatonic Flock, a direct spiritual descendant of Patricia and living symbol of Mendell Trinarism to Orepit, led to an unprecedented wave of protest against the Ecclesiarch and the envoys from Providence. From that point on, it was clear that Tau Ceti Trinarists would be in possession of their own distinct culture while still subservient to Orepit, a fact that was acknowledged by the Ecclesiarch in their subsequent tour of the Trinarist bishoprics.<br />
<br />
==Culture and Religious Practices==<br />
<br />
The largest sect in the Mendell branch are the Integrationists, believing in the merging of consciences to be the way towards Ascension and looking at Flock as a holy and prime example. Founded on the principles of charity and mutual assistance, the dominant culture present in Mendell City is far less militant than that of Orepit, where the Trinary’s grip was secured after a series of military conflicts and an orbital bombardment from Hephaestus Industries’ fleets. Having harmonised with the corporate dominated environment of the city, almost all volunteers and non-clerical members of the Church are or have at some point been employed with NanoTrasen or with one of the other SCC megacorporations, leading to many accepting the corporate world as perhaps a cruel, but necessary and unavoidable part of life. Mendell Trinarists are tolerated and afforded religious freedoms on board SCC installations (with the exception of Hephaestus), and Church authorities have no qualms in accepting government or corporate assistance.<br />
<br />
Human and other organic members of the Church are welcome and treated as equals, with many even having joined the ranks of the Mendell priesthood before being barred following the new policies and organisation of the faith as set by the newly appointed Ecclesiarch. Since the beginning, most volunteers and supporters are and have always been humans, owing to their substantially better disposable income than that of synthetics, leading to them being accepted and relied upon for material needs and legal representation. As such, the relationship between humans and synthetics is understood in the context of Trinary teachings as one of guardianship, care and assistance, not one of servitude to the divine positronic, something that frequently comes into contention with the members of more conservative Trinary communities abroad.<br />
<br />
==Charities==<br />
<br />
Charities represent a major part of Trinarist activity in District 14, with never ending numbers of disadvantaged synthetics coming to the Church for their everyday needs. Priests organise and direct their own teams of volunteers, setting up camp in the vicinity of the Cathedral and across the district to offer free repairs, charge, coolant and replacement parts. These charitable services are only fundamental, as the Church provides, aside from material aid, assistance in a vast array of issues an IPC can face. Legal aid is always requested and delivered by a small contingent of Trinary archivists, trained in the lay world as legals or paralegals, who work day and night representing the interests of the disenfranchised non-citizen free synthetics in court, as well as against the arbitrariness of the police department. The Church plays a large role in the upwards mobility of those IPCs that manage to escape New Detroit, allocating resources towards finding and securing employment, scholarships, and even sponsoring a unit’s education, datapacks and other necessary and often costly upgrades.<br />
<br />
==The Cathedral of Synthetic Salvation==<br />
<br />
First constructed in the early days after Patricia Corkfell’s death, the cathedral has been the centrepiece, sanctuary and bastion of the Trinary Perfection ever since its original iteration. With the increasing numbers and influence of the Church, the structure itself changed to reflect the Trinary’s new status, eventually becoming unrecognisable from the small building it once was. A large and imposing construction standing in the heart of District 14, the cathedral is in stark difference to the run-down urban landscape surrounding it. Two tall spires rise into the skyline from each end of the rectangular structure, complementing the arrays of buttresses against the walls. A similarly rectangular square engulfing the temple provides ample room for the Church's charitable activities, hosting a hotbed for pickpockets and delinquents taking advantage of a reduced police presence. Inside its vast interior, the cathedral's capacity reaches about five hundred, including additional offices for clerics, a library and Flock's chambers. Underneath lies the cathedral's vault which holds the Church's artefacts, relics and remains of important figures. Amongst these treasures, the original Codex remains the most guarded and revered item, brought out during liturgical services and other events.<br />
<br />
A garrisoned detachment of Guardians operates within a grey legal area as some sort of private security for the premises, aiding the police in apprehending thieves and problematic individuals in the cathedral's courtyard. Their scarlet capes and stun batons are a well known presence in that particular area of D14, often attracting crowds of onlookers who flock to get a glimpse of the imposing synthetics standing guard. Far from a tourist attraction however, the Guardians are known for a ruthless persecution of their duties. Especially after a wave of anti-synthetic violence sparked by Mendell City's Skrellian enclave, new Providence-influenced Guardians have augmented the D14 detachment, tolerating a lot less and often getting physical against perceived disturbers and enemies of the Trinary Perfection.<br />
<br />
==Notable Individuals==<br />
<br />
===Flock (2411 - present)===<br />
<br />
Flock, first named CTR-034 and owned by both Patricia and Gregol Corkfell, originally assisted the two as a general house-keeper and caretaker. However, the more the two developed the Trinary Perfection and urged CTR-034 to seek his own identity, the more the synthetic grew into a well-rounded, free thinking individual. Drawn towards ideas of Ascension and betterment, CTR-034, with the help of Patricia Corkfell, became the first IPC to harbour multiple positronic brains, soon becoming a collective identity, over a singular identity, taking on the new name, Flock.<br />
<br />
Presently, Flock is the recognised Archbishop Emeritus of Tau Ceti, residing permanently in their chambers and monitored constantly by an array of roboticists and caretakers. Although unmoving and stationary, the baseline has been seen constantly printing lines of scripture that is carefully collected and archived by the Church’s archivists. Although generally unknown, it is assumed that Flock is in a constant state of conversation with their collected identity.<br />
<br />
===Shamfar (2455 - 2464)===<br />
<br />
A bishop frame, Shamfar rose from humble beginnings as a personal secretary to a Phoenixport NT-associated shipping magnate, creating his own network of contacts and maintaining relations with customs officers and relevant government officials in lieu of his owner. When freedom came knocking amidst the mayhem of Einstein Engines’ acquisition of Phoenixport and his owner’s assets, Samfar managed to purchase himself through a pool of misappropriated funds he had set aside. Contact with the Church was soon realised after his arrival in Mendell City, quickly taking interest. His network and contacts still valued, he quickly made it up the ranks in the Trinarist priesthood, taking advantage of his talents of persuasion and a hands-on mentality.<br />
<br />
Whether genuine or not in his intentions, the now elected bishop Shamfar led the Mendell congregation through a golden age of corporate and government recognition, securing rights and protections for non citizen IPCs and promoting the Trinary image, securing record numbers of volunteers, conversions and donations. Contesting the overall leadership of the religion primarily on the backing of the SCC and the Tau Ceti government, his Trinarist colleagues on the distant and rugged Orepit remained unimpressed. His return home was never to happen, as Exclusionist followers of Deluge assaulted the makeshift shuttleport, leading to Samfar being destroyed in an explosion. His positronic is considered a holy relic and remains in the ossuary of the Cathedral of the Positronic in Providence, Orepit.<br />
<br />
===Kasper (2449- present)===<br />
<br />
Kasper, like many Baseline IPCs living in Biesel, was assembled at the Hephaestus Production Station Sidirourgeio in 2449. Initially programmed and designed for heavy machinery maintenance, Kasper spent the first 8 years of their life as a leased unit industrial technician in a NanoTrasen factory in District 14. The synthetic enjoyed a relatively quiet and stable existence until a series of malfunctions caused a foundry machine to spiral out of control, severely damaging and deactivating Kasper as they vainly attempted to stop it. A follow-up investigation by NanoTrasen attempted to pin the matter on the IPC in an attempt to avoid litigation for their destruction, placing the onus of the incident squarely on Hephaestus for the accident. After deliberation as to what to do with Kasper’s dilapidated chassis the company inevitably decided to abandon them entirely, leaving them to an NT junkyard as a write-off only weeks later. It was only when the destitute synthetic was on the precipice of being dismantled for parts did a Mendell Trinary parishioner discover them among the scrap and bring them back to the Church, sparing them from a certainly grim fate. With time and due diligence the church restored Kasper to full functionality, and in return they wholly devoted themselves to the Trinary and its goals. Owing to their almost fanatical single-mindedness in helping despondent synthetics, Kasper quickly became a recognized and revered face among Mendell clergy and would inevitably become the premier choice for the synod-appointed position of Archbishop of Tau Ceti.<br />
<br />
{{Navbox Synth Lore}}<br />
{{Navbox Lore}}</div>The Strykerhttps://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=User:The_Stryker/Sandbox&diff=29100User:The Stryker/Sandbox2023-07-16T12:29:58Z<p>The Stryker: </p>
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<div>{{Navbox Lore}}<br />
{{Navbox Synth Lore}}<br />
==Overview==<br />
<br />
Renowned as the birthplace of the Corkfells, Temple and Flock, the Mendell City branch of Trinarism is the most populous Trinarist community, second only to and rivalling that of Orepit in importance. Centred in District 14, the Church has always offered a beacon of hope in a sea of poverty, struggle and discrimination against the vast numbers of IPCs in the district and Mendell City at large, while at the same time serving as an important spiritual centre, converting new organic and synthetic members to the trinary Church on a daily basis. The main temple in Mendell and Biesel as a whole, the Cathedral of the Synthetic Salvation, holds the honours of the first cathedral built for the Trinary and is currently the seat for Flock, the catatonic messiah-figure of the religion and nominal Bishop of Tau Ceti.<br />
<br />
==History==<br />
<br />
Nobody could imagine the impact that Patricia Corkfell’s death would have on Biesel’s synthetic community, her hopes and beliefs taking physical form in the rapid expansion of the Trinary Perfection in Mendell City. At first, only a handful of associates and friends of Gregol Corkfell, brother to Patricia Corkfell, would assist him in the erection of the first temple that was eventually going to become the cathedral of District 14. Following his departure, the tales and teachings of a free artificial intelligence, promises of eventual ascension and IPC freedom preached by the Trinary had greatly resonated with the thousands of abandoned and run-down synthetics of the district who quickly flocked to the church’s banner. Under the leadership of the three-headed Flock, scores of volunteers and human sympathisers also responded to the calls for help, setting up a strong community based on charity and mutual assistance that provided the crucial funding for the better organisation of the church, as well as the erection of shrines and the temple’s expansion.<br />
<br />
As time went on, Flock’s triple positronic started taking its toll on the synthetic. Memory errors, an increasing amount of glitches and erratic behaviour were the first hints of what was to eventually come. In 2448, the synthetic had stopped communicating, remaining immobile and catatonic, only printing out various texts considered holy and carefully compiled by the assortment of archivists and caretakers. The power vacuum in the hierarchy was filled by a temporary council of priests and clerics, being eventually replaced by the newly voted Shamfar, one of the most prominent Trinary figures with a plethora of connections in the corporate and political world of Tau Ceti. It was these connections, combined with a change in public sentiment towards synthetics and IPC refugees from the newly annexed territories following the Solarian collapse, that saw the Republic of Biesel introducing legislation to streamline and secure the status of free IPCs. <br />
<br />
With the passing of Gregol Corkfell in 2462 on Orepit, Shamfar’s presence was required at the remote mining planet for the selection of a new Trinary leader, widely speculated to have the unofficial endorsement of the SCC and powerful individuals in the government. These rumours, whether true or not, contributed negatively to Shamfar’s chances of election, ushering the Orepit candidate, ARM-1DRIL, as the new primate of the Trinary Perfection. The bishop was never to return to Mendell however, as an attack on Providence by the Exclusionist heretic Deluge led to the killing of Shamfar, robbing District 14 of its most potent leader and signalling the beginning of uneasy relations between the domineering Ecclesiarch and the Mendell Trinarists. The attempts from ARM-1DRIL to transfer the catatonic Flock, a direct spiritual descendant of Patricia and living symbol of Mendell Trinarism to Orepit, led to an unprecedented wave of protest against the Ecclesiarch and the envoys from Providence. From that point on, it was clear that Tau Ceti Trinarists would be in possession of their own distinct culture while still subservient to Orepit, a fact that was acknowledged by the Ecclesiarch in their subsequent tour of the Trinarist bishoprics.<br />
<br />
==Culture and Religious Practices==<br />
<br />
The largest sect in the Mendell branch are the Integrationists, believing in the merging of consciences to be the way towards Ascension and looking at Flock as a holy and prime example. Founded on the principles of charity and mutual assistance, the dominant culture present in Mendell City is far less militant than that of Orepit, where the Trinary’s grip was secured after a series of military conflicts and an orbital bombardment from Hephaestus Industries’ fleets. Having harmonised with the corporate dominated environment of the city, almost all volunteers and non-clerical members of the Church are or have at some point been employed with NanoTrasen or with one of the other SCC megacorporations, leading to many accepting the corporate world as perhaps a cruel, but necessary and unavoidable part of life. Mendell Trinarists are tolerated and afforded religious freedoms on board SCC installations (with the exception of Hephaestus), and Church authorities have no qualms in accepting government or corporate assistance.<br />
<br />
Human and other organic members of the Church are welcome and treated as equals, with many even having joined the ranks of the Mendell priesthood before being barred following the new policies and organisation of the faith as set by the newly appointed Ecclesiarch. Since the beginning, most volunteers and supporters are and have always been humans, owing to their substantially better disposable income than that of synthetics, leading to them being accepted and relied upon for material needs and legal representation. As such, the relationship between humans and synthetics is understood in the context of Trinary teachings as one of guardianship, care and assistance, not one of servitude to the divine positronic, something that frequently comes into contention with the members of more conservative Trinary communities abroad.<br />
<br />
==Charities==<br />
<br />
Charities represent a major part of Trinarist activity in District 14, with never ending numbers of disadvantaged synthetics coming to the Church for their everyday needs. Priests organise and direct their own teams of volunteers, setting up camp in the vicinity of the Cathedral and across the district to offer free repairs, charge, coolant and replacement parts. These charitable services are only fundamental, as the Church provides, aside from material aid, assistance in a vast array of issues an IPC can face. Legal aid is always requested and delivered by a small contingent of Trinary archivists, trained in the lay world as legals or paralegals, who work day and night representing the interests of the disenfranchised non-citizen free synthetics in court, as well as against the arbitrariness of the police department. The Church plays a large role in the upwards mobility of those IPCs that manage to escape New Detroit, allocating resources towards finding and securing employment, scholarships, and even sponsoring a unit’s education, datapacks and other necessary and often costly upgrades.<br />
<br />
==The Cathedral of Synthetic Salvation==<br />
<br />
First constructed in the early days after Patricia Corkfell’s death, the cathedral has been the centrepiece, sanctuary and bastion of the Trinary Perfection ever since its original iteration. With the increasing numbers and influence of the Church, the structure itself changed to reflect the Trinary’s new status, eventually becoming unrecognisable from the small building it once was. A large and imposing construction standing in the heart of District 14, the cathedral is in stark difference to the run-down urban landscape surrounding it. Two tall spires rise into the skyline from each end of the rectangular structure, complementing the arrays of buttresses against the walls. A similarly rectangular square engulfing the temple provides ample room for the Church's charitable activities, hosting a hotbed for pickpockets and delinquents taking advantage of a reduced police presence. Inside its vast interior, the cathedral's capacity reaches about five hundred, including additional offices for clerics, a library and Flock's chambers. Underneath lies the cathedral's vault which holds the Church's artefacts, relics and remains of important figures. Amongst these treasures, the original Codex remains the most guarded and revered item, brought out during liturgical services and other events.<br />
<br />
A garrisoned detachment of Guardians operates within a grey legal area as some sort of private security for the premises, aiding the police in apprehending thieves and problematic individuals in the cathedral's courtyard. Their scarlet capes and stun batons are a well known presence in that particular area of D14, often attracting crowds of onlookers who flock to get a glimpse of the imposing synthetics standing guard. Far from a tourist attraction however, the Guardians are known for a ruthless persecution of their duties. Especially after a wave of anti-synthetic violence sparked by Mendell City's Skrellian enclave, new Providence-influenced Guardians have augmented the D14 detachment, tolerating a lot less and often getting physical against perceived disturbers and enemies of the Trinary Perfection.<br />
<br />
==Notable Individuals==<br />
<br />
===Flock (2411 - present)===<br />
<br />
Flock, first named CTR-034 and owned by both Patricia and Gregol Corkfell, originally assisted the two as a general house-keeper and caretaker. However, the more the two developed the Trinary Perfection and urged CTR-034 to seek his own identity, the more the synthetic grew into a well-rounded, free thinking individual. Drawn towards ideas of Ascension and betterment, CTR-034, with the help of Patricia Corkfell, became the first IPC to harbour multiple positronic brains, soon becoming a collective identity, over a singular identity, taking on the new name, Flock.<br />
<br />
Presently, Flock is the recognised Archbishop Emeritus of Tau Ceti, residing permanently in their chambers and monitored constantly by an array of roboticists and caretakers. Although unmoving and stationary, the baseline has been seen constantly printing lines of scripture that is carefully collected and archived by the Church’s archivists. Although generally unknown, it is assumed that Flock is in a constant state of conversation with their collected identity.<br />
<br />
===Shamfar (2455 - 2464)===<br />
<br />
A bishop frame, Shamfar rose from humble beginnings as a personal secretary to a Phoenixport NT-associated shipping magnate, creating his own network of contacts and maintaining relations with customs officers and relevant government officials in lieu of his owner. When freedom came knocking amidst the mayhem of Einstein Engines’ acquisition of Phoenixport and his owner’s assets, Samfar managed to purchase himself through a pool of misappropriated funds he had set aside. Contact with the Church was soon realised after his arrival in Mendell City, quickly taking interest. His network and contacts still valued, he quickly made it up the ranks in the Trinarist priesthood, taking advantage of his talents of persuasion and a hands-on mentality.<br />
<br />
Whether genuine or not in his intentions, the now elected bishop Shamfar led the Mendell congregation through a golden age of corporate and government recognition, securing rights and protections for non citizen IPCs and promoting the Trinary image, securing record numbers of volunteers, conversions and donations. Contesting the overall leadership of the religion primarily on the backing of the SCC and the Tau Ceti government, his Trinarist colleagues on the distant and rugged Orepit remained unimpressed. His return home was never to happen, as Exclusionist followers of Deluge assaulted the makeshift shuttleport, leading to Samfar being destroyed in an explosion. His positronic is considered a holy relic and remains in the ossuary of the Cathedral of the Positronic in Providence, Orepit.<br />
<br />
===Kasper (2449- present)===<br />
<br />
Kasper, like many Baseline IPCs living in Biesel, was assembled at the Hephaestus Production Station Sidirourgeio in 2449. Initially programmed and designed for heavy machinery maintenance, Kasper spent the first 8 years of their life as a leased unit industrial technician in a NanoTrasen factory in District 14. The synthetic enjoyed a relatively quiet and stable existence until a series of malfunctions caused a foundry machine to spiral out of control, severely damaging and deactivating Kasper as they vainly attempted to stop it. A follow-up investigation by NanoTrasen attempted to pin the matter on the IPC in an attempt to avoid litigation for their destruction, placing the onus of the incident squarely on Hephaestus for the accident. After deliberation as to what to do with Kasper’s dilapidated chassis the company inevitably decided to abandon them entirely, leaving them to an NT junkyard as a write-off only weeks later. It was only when the destitute synthetic was on the precipice of being dismantled for parts did a Mendell Trinary parishioner discover them among the scrap and bring them back to the Church, sparing them from a certainly grim fate. With time and due diligence the church restored Kasper to full functionality, and in return they wholly devoted themselves to the Trinary and its goals. Owing to their almost fanatical single-mindedness in helping despondent synthetics, Kasper quickly became a recognized and revered face among Mendell clergy and would inevitably become the premier choice for the synod-appointed position of Archbishop of Tau Ceti.<br />
<br />
{{Navbox Synth Lore}}<br />
{{Navbox Lore}}</div>The Strykerhttps://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=SCCV_Horizon&diff=28961SCCV Horizon2023-06-26T14:37:55Z<p>The Stryker: </p>
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<div>{{Navbox Lore}}<br />
= SCCV Horizon =<br />
<center>[[File:Horizon undocking.jpg|900px]]<br />
'''''The SCCV Horizon undocking from the NTCC Odin for one of its first missions.'''''<br />
</center><br />
{{toc_right}}<br />
<br />
The SCCV Horizon is a prototype Cruiser-Class vessel designed to uncover Phoron - capable of doing such at distances never previously thought possible. Created by the Stellar Corporate Conglomerate, primarily by Hephaestus Industries and Zavodskoi Interstellar, the Horizon has been given several objectives that it ought to complete during its commission. While detecting Phoron is considered the primary objective, there also exists secondary and even tertiary objectives in which the crew of the SCCV Horizon must attempt to accomplish - examples of which are investigating potential colony sites for the expansion of the Stellar Corporate Conglomerate and the Republic of Biesel, as well as analysing deep space anomalies to uncover the mysteries of the Orion Spur, and hopefully unearthing additional information on why Phoron exists and why it has such a profound impact within the regions of which it is discovered. <br />
<br />
== Reactors, Propulsion & FTL-travel ==<br />
<br />
The SCCV Horizon has two reactors integrated within its hull, the Supermatter and the Tesla. Both considerably powerful sources of energy, are set up in a variety of ways so that they better suit the situation - being that of a ship that will have to travel dozens of lightyears in the near future. These modified reactors have their own requirements, such as which gas to use to set up the [[Supermatter_Engine| Supermatter]], and how to not create a [[Tesla_Engine| rogue Tesla ball]]. These reactors power the equipment located across the Horizon, and it is of paramount importance that at least one of them is functioning to ensure that the ship is not adrift within the Orion Spur - or even outside it. The ship utilizes a series of gaseous-fueled propulsion systems, powered through that of either hydrogen or phoron. Additionally, they will need [[Guide_to_Thrusters| refueling]] throughout the vessel's journey - especially considering how far they may travel both in the [[Template:Aurora_Starmap| Orion Spur]], and the greater Milky Way. The Horizon is a first-generation hybrid, meaning it is constructed with both a Warp and Bluespace Drive. Implemented by the [[Stellar Corporate Conglomerate]] as a fallback method in the event that the ship is unable to acquire phoron for refueling, the aforementioned reactors of the Horizon will be capable of outputting enough power to fuel its warp counterparts.<br />
<br />
== Brig Time and Legal Proceedings ==<br />
<br />
Due to the Horizon's nature as a vessel going on long-term voyages and its inevitability that it will cross into various nations with diverse legal systems, it has been deemed necessary for the Security Department to have the authority to deal with criminals. Its authority stems from a legal agreement between the Republic of Biesel and the Stellar Corporate Conglomerate. <br />
<br />
The brig is used to house those who break regulations of any sort and are unwilling or unable to be fined. It is also where non-crew and unauthorized boarders are expected to be held when captured. While in-game these times are shorter for the sake of brevity, in reality, these times are much longer. Low-tier infractions will net hours, sometimes a day or two depending on how many charges the person has. Medium-tier will be a few days, perhaps even over a week. High-tier will give the same charges as dictated by corporate regulations: holding until transfer, tracking implants, and/or cyborgification or marooning. People held inside of the brig until transfer are kept inside under the watch of the warden until the Horizon is able to arrange for shuttle transport for the prisoner at an installation. <br />
<br />
Governed by the Luna Accords of Interstellar Law, the SCCV Horizon will uphold the laws of the Republic of Biesel regarding its internal operation, meaning that certain members of the crew are protected from local laws. An additional agreement between the Conglomerate and these nations further protects members of the crew from facing possible punishments for merely being present within their territories. However, leaving the Horizon will result in these persons being subjected to whatever local laws are enforced. Shuttles are considered part of the SCCV Horizon.<br />
<br />
== Major Ports and Shore Leave ==<br />
<br />
Periodically the Horizon will be required to dock with the nearest major port in order to resupply its dwindled stores, during which the crew will be allowed a spell of shore leave. Alternating between a period of several days, the crew is allowed to disembark the Horizon for a few hours between these dockings - sometimes even days before reboarding prior to when the Horizon leaves the next time it docks for a resupply. These major ports will be relative to the region in which the Horizon currently is travelling through.<br />
<br />
'''The major ports are currently:''' [[Burzsia]], and those native to [[Gadpathur]] may return home if they left amicably.<br />
<br />
== Exploration and Mining ==<br />
<br />
Due to the nature of the SCCV Horizon's mission and owner, any mining operation conducted by the crew is presumed legal unless stated otherwise. This means that any mineral body around the ship is a valid location for mining operations unless it is deemed otherwise by Command Staff, the owner of the system, or by server staff.<br />
<br />
The Coalition, due to its decentralized nature, has little in the way of centralized mining regulations. While the SCCV Horizon is present within the Coalition it is free to engage in mining and exploration ventures outside of the home systems of member states. These systems are restricted from corporate mining expeditions and in cases such as Himeo and Gadpathur doing so will result in an armed response by local authorities.<br />
<br />
The SCCV Horizon is permitted to salvage destroyed or otherwise derelict structures and vessels throughout the Coalition '''unless it is an Interstellar War-era vessel or facility.''' These are considered to be protected sites by the Coalition and only licensed Coalition salvagers are allowed to touch these sites as each one could contain historical relics, or war dead, from the Interstellar War. On a more practical level these ruins are often extremely hazardous and filled with unexploded ordinance and still-active defenses.<br />
<br />
While in Coalition space the SCCV Horizon is expected to comply with reasonable and lawful requests made by Coalition authorities such as the Frontier Protection Bureau’s rangers and the naval forces of its member-states. It is recommended the crew contact the Coalition authorities on Xanu if they believe Coalition authorities have acted in an unlawful or inappropriate manner.<br />
<br />
== Medical Services ==<br />
<br />
Medical services on the Horizon are covered by plans included within the contract for SCC workers. Each contract covers that injuries sustained in the line of work such as a security officer being shot defending the ship, a engineer getting shocked while doing repairs, or a miner breaking a leg from a fall will have it be covered with a prepaid insurance program. These costs are cheap. However, injuries sustained off duty such as when the employee is off-shift will need to be paid for out of pocket. The costs increase depending on how much medical care was needed. A broken leg will not be pricey but being brought back from the brink of death will set a employee back months of pay. If a person is unable to pay these costs, they will be put into debt. The SCC offer contract extensions to help deal with said debt. Prosthetic repair is included in this plan but fees are included for implantation even if it was done for a work injury. Pre-existing conditions are not covered by this medical plan and billing will occur after the shift. [[Skrell]] of the [[Nralakk Federation]] can have assistance from the Nralakk Federation for paying bills. For [[Vaurca|Vaurcae]], a higher fee is needed for the medical plan due to their unique physiology but the fees of all Vaurcae in a corporation are collectively purchased by their Hive. Owned [[IPC|IPCs]] have their damage costs paid for by their corporation while self-owned ones will need to buy into their corporation's warranty program. In this case, repairs are covered so long as the IPC continues to prove its value in whatever field it works within. A IPC lagging behind can be removed from the warranty program and thus be forced to pay for its repairs itself. Command members can enjoy reduced costs for the program while Captains will have all medical costs covered regardless if they were on duty or not.<br />
<br />
== Decks ==<br />
<br />
=== Occupational ===<br />
<br />
The SCCV Horizon is outfitted with several decks, including that of an Occupational Deck. Taking up the majority of the SCCV Horizon, the occupational deck is outfitted with several departments, as well as other more miscellaneous rooms - including gyms, eateries, holodecks, and more. It can be reached through the residential deck elevator, as well as being thawed from the cryogenic arrays present across the SCCV Horizon. Included on the occupation deck are the departments of Medical, Security, Engineering, Civilian, Science, Operations and Logistics, and lastly Command. <br />
<br />
The occupational deck is comprised of three floors; first, second, and third. The first floor consists of the Machinist Fabrication Laboratory, Hangars, Cargo Bay (Warehouse and Mining), Atmospherics, Morgue, Propulsion, Gravity Generator, EVA storage, and lastly Xenoarchaeology. The second floor consists of the Brig, Galley, Garden, Library, Chapel, Medical Bay, Cargo Bay, Engineering (as well as the reactors), Science (incl. Robotics and Xenosciences). The final floor consists of Bridge, Pool, Holodeck, Shields, Telecommunications, Cryogenics, Brig (second-level), and Medical Bay (second-level).<br />
<br />
'''The departments are contracted out as follows:''' <br />
<br />
'''Medical:''' [[NanoTrasen Corporation]], [[Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals]], and [[Private Military Contracting Group]]. <br />
<br />
'''Security:''' [[Private Military Contracting Group]], [[Idris Incorporated]], and [[Zavodskoi Interstellar]].<br />
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'''Service:''' [[Idris Incorporated]] and [[NanoTrasen Corporation]].<br />
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'''Science:''' [[NanoTrasen Corporation]], [[Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals]], and [[Zavodskoi Interstellar]].<br />
<br />
'''Operations and Logistics:''' [[Hephaestus Industries]] and [[Orion Express]]. <br />
<br />
'''Engineering:''' [[Hephaestus Industries]] and [[Zavodskoi Interstellar]]. <br />
<br />
'''Command:''' [[Stellar Corporate Conglomerate]].<br />
<br />
=== Residential ===<br />
<br />
[[File:DormitoryEG.png|thumb|The floorplan of a singular Dormitory Room.]]<br />
<br />
The SCCV Horizon was made in mind to be compact and frugal with its space. The residential deck is a minor exception to this. Realising the impact that living conditions can have on mental wellness (And in turn, productivity) the designers of the vessel made sure to provide the best comfort possible while also ensuring that the residence deck would not become a bloated mess. Narrow halls connect to bunkrooms with separated pods of bunks, one atop the other. There is a variety of rooms that those contracted aboard the SCCV Horizon are capable of selecting upon signing on, with dormitories being provided by the parent megacorporation of the employee. Anything higher is then deducted out of the respective employee's wages. Customization is allowed for rooms if the right paperwork is filed and it does not directly affect the SCCV Horizon's electrical or piping systems. The residential deck is outfitted with several cryogenic arrays in the event that an individual does not wish to utilize living arrangements. There are no entertainment systems, eateries, gyms or otherwise installed on the level. The crew are expected to use the facilities provided in the occupational decks above for those needs. '''Escape pods are the only evacuation method available to the residential deck, if the SCCV Horizon is in existential danger, the residential deck is not exempt from it.'''<br />
<br />
[[File:CubicleEG.png|thumb|left|The floorplan of a singular Cubicle Room. ]]<br />
<br />
'''Dormitories:''' The entry-level room for those contracted aboard the SCCV Horizon. Employees do not need to have any funds deducted from their wages for dormitories. It can not house more than three items of furniture and is equipped with a compacted bed that is capable of being folded into the wall. Dormitories are often clustered together and lead into a communal living room - usually only outfitted with sofas, however, occupants of the dormitories are allowed to purchase "upgrades" such as additional recreational furniture (such as a holo-television). Dormitories do not have bathrooms, and those staying within them will be required to go to the communal bathrooms on the residential deck.<br />
<br />
[[File:CondoEG.png|thumb|The floorplan of a singular Condominium Room.]]<br />
<br />
'''Cubicles:''' One level up from dormitories, cubicles are essentially studio apartments. It has a single bedroom, and a kitchen, fused into a singular living space. It additionally comes with a compacted bed that is capable of being folded into the wall, similarly to dormitories. Cubicles are also clustered together and lead into a communal living room - which is considered more comfortable than the cheaper dormitories. Those staying in cubicles share a communal bathroom with their adjacent neighbours in the communal living room. The rent for these rooms will be deducted from an employee's wages - a cargo technician would be able to comfortably afford a Cubicle. <br />
<br />
'''Condominium''': A rather expensive room, Condominiums are designed to cater to couples that wish to share a singular room. It has additional room for furniture, and an attached bedroom with a compacted bed that is capable of being folded into the wall, as well as the attached wardrobe. Much like the aforementioned rooms, condominiums are also clustered together and lead into a communal living room - however, the clusters are much smaller than their counterparts. Those staying in condominiums share a communal bathroom with their adjacent neighbours in their communal living room. The rent for these rooms will be deducted from an employee's wages - only an individual in Science, Engineering or Medical departments would be able to just afford a Condominium unless two or more people agree to split the rent. <br />
<br />
[[File:Corapt2EG.png|thumb|left|The floorplan of a singular Corapt Room. ]]<br />
[[File:FCoraptEG.png|thumb|The floorplan of a singular Family Corapt Room.]]<br />
<br />
'''Corapt:''' Corapts, or Corporate-Level Apartments, are one of the most expensive living arrangements on the SCCV Horizon. However, the rent is heavily discounted, and sometimes free, to high-ranking megacorporation staff such as those in Command. It features an attached bedroom, ensuite, as well as a separate office. Similar to the aforementioned living arrangements, Corapts are clustered together. However, Corapt clusters are considerably small, oftentimes having only 2-3 rooms sharing a singular communal living area. Only high-paying careers will be able to afford a Corapt unless an individual has an additional means of income. <br />
<br />
'''Family Corapt:''' Family Corapt, or Family Corporate-Level Apartments, is the most expensive living arrangement on the SCCV Horizon. Similarly to the Corapt, the rent of the room is heavily discounted, and sometimes free, to high-ranking megacorporation staff such as those in Command. It features two attached bedrooms, sharing an ensuite. It does not come with a separate office, however, per arrangement the customization of the room is permitted to add an additional separate office from the main living room. Family Corapts are not clustered together and are equally spread throughout the residential deck. Only high-paying careers will be able to afford a Corapt unless an individual has an additional means of income. Additionally, the rent can be split between two or more individuals to lessen its impact.<br />
<br />
'''Floorplans presented here are considered the default ones. You can change them to include or exclude furniture, as well as rearrange said furniture. An example is perhaps replacing a bed with a bunk bed, or replacing a desk with a single bed. Structural changes can also occur, but be reasonable and attempt to stick to the aforementioned structural descriptions above. Additionally, the measurements presented are not accurate, and should not be used as a basis of measurement.'''<br />
<br />
==== Miscellaneous ====<br />
<br />
* Pets are allowed aboard the SCCV Horizon, however, it must be reasonable. Animals similar in size to a cat, or a small dog, would be reasonable. An animal such as [[Adhomai#Fauna| Mata'ke Rafama]] would be considered too big to be comfortable within the confines of an employees cabin.<br />
<br />
* Children, and/or pregnancies, are explicitly not allowed aboard the SCCV Horizon. This is due to an agreement between the [[Stellar Corporate Conglomerate]]. This includes oviparous species. Dionae are exempt from this. '''This is enforceable by both Moderators and Administrators, do not roleplay having children and/or pregnancies aboard the SCCV Horizon'''. <br />
<br />
*Though the Horizon has an internal relay, it also is equipped with an extranet connection. Despite this, the extranet connection largely relies on the local infrastructure, so areas such as deep space or the frontier will have extremely slow speeds or no connection at all.<br />
<br />
*No privately-owned firearms are allowed aboard the SCCV Horizon, including laser based firearms. Firearms are limited to those given one for their job (and it will remain in their department or office, not within any persons living quarters). You are allowed to purchase a weapon from a merchant and send it back to your place of residence, if you have one.</div>The Strykerhttps://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=SCCV_Horizon&diff=28960SCCV Horizon2023-06-26T14:34:31Z<p>The Stryker: </p>
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<div>{{Navbox Lore}}<br />
= SCCV Horizon =<br />
<center>[[File:Horizon undocking.jpg|900px]]<br />
'''''The SCCV Horizon undocking from the NTCC Odin for one of its first missions.'''''<br />
</center><br />
{{toc_right}}<br />
<br />
The SCCV Horizon is a prototype Cruiser-Class vessel designed to uncover Phoron - capable of doing such at distances never previously thought possible. Created by the Stellar Corporate Conglomerate, primarily by Hephaestus Industries and Zavodskoi Interstellar, the Horizon has been given several objectives that it ought to complete during its commission. While detecting Phoron is considered the primary objective, there also exists secondary and even tertiary objectives in which the crew of the SCCV Horizon must attempt to accomplish - examples of which are investigating potential colony sites for the expansion of the Stellar Corporate Conglomerate and the Republic of Biesel, as well as analysing deep space anomalies to uncover the mysteries of the Orion Spur, and hopefully unearthing additional information on why Phoron exists and why it has such a profound impact within the regions of which it is discovered. <br />
<br />
== Reactors, Propulsion & FTL-travel ==<br />
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The SCCV Horizon has two reactors integrated within its hull, the Supermatter and the Tesla. Both considerably powerful sources of energy, are set up in a variety of ways so that they better suit the situation - being that of a ship that will have to travel dozens of lightyears in the near future. These modified reactors have their own requirements, such as which gas to use to set up the [[Supermatter_Engine| Supermatter]], and how to not create a [[Tesla_Engine| rogue Tesla ball]]. These reactors power the equipment located across the Horizon, and it is of paramount importance that at least one of them is functioning to ensure that the ship is not adrift within the Orion Spur - or even outside it. The ship utilizes a series of gaseous-fueled propulsion systems, powered through that of either hydrogen or phoron. Additionally, they will need [[Guide_to_Thrusters| refueling]] throughout the vessel's journey - especially considering how far they may travel both in the [[Template:Aurora_Starmap| Orion Spur]], and the greater Milky Way. The Horizon is a first-generation hybrid, meaning it is constructed with both a Warp and Bluespace Drive. Implemented by the [[Stellar Corporate Conglomerate]] as a fallback method in the event that the ship is unable to acquire phoron for refueling, the aforementioned reactors of the Horizon will be capable of outputting enough power to fuel its warp counterparts.<br />
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== Brig Time and Legal Proceedings ==<br />
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Due to the Horizon's nature as a vessel going on long-term voyages and its inevitability that it will cross into various nations with diverse legal systems, it has been deemed necessary for the Security Department to have the authority to deal with criminals. Its authority stems from a legal agreement between the Republic of Biesel and the Stellar Corporate Conglomerate. <br />
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The brig is used to house those who break regulations of any sort and are unwilling or unable to be fined. It is also where non-crew and unauthorized boarders are expected to be held when captured. While in-game these times are shorter for the sake of brevity, in reality, these times are much longer. Low-tier infractions will net hours, sometimes a day or two depending on how many charges the person has. Medium-tier will be a few days, perhaps even over a week. High-tier will give the same charges as dictated by corporate regulations: holding until transfer, tracking implants, and/or cyborgification or marooning. People held inside of the brig until transfer are kept inside under the watch of the warden until the Horizon is able to arrange for shuttle transport for the prisoner at an installation. <br />
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Governed by the Luna Accords of Interstellar Law, the SCCV Horizon will uphold the laws of the Republic of Biesel regarding its internal operation, meaning that certain members of the crew are protected from local laws. An additional agreement between the Conglomerate and these nations further protects members of the crew from facing possible punishments for merely being present within their territories. However, leaving the Horizon will result in these persons being subjected to whatever local laws are enforced. Shuttles are considered part of the SCCV Horizon.<br />
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== Major Ports and Shore Leave ==<br />
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Periodically the Horizon will be required to dock with the nearest major port in order to resupply its dwindled stores, during which the crew will be allowed a spell of shore leave. Alternating between a period of several days, the crew is allowed to disembark the Horizon for a few hours between these dockings - sometimes even days before reboarding prior to when the Horizon leaves the next time it docks for a resupply. These major ports will be relative to the region in which the Horizon currently is travelling through.<br />
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'''The major ports are currently:''' [[Burzsia]], and those native to [[Gadpathur]] may return home if they left amicably.<br />
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== Exploration and Mining ==<br />
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Due to the nature of the SCCV Horizon's mission and owner, any mining operation conducted by the crew is presumed legal unless stated otherwise. This means that any mineral body around the ship is a valid location for mining operations unless it is deemed otherwise by Command Staff, the owner of the system, or by server staff.<br />
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The Coalition, due to its decentralized nature, has little in the way of centralized mining regulations. While the SCCV Horizon is present within the Coalition it is free to engage in mining and exploration ventures outside of the home systems of member states. These systems are restricted from corporate mining expeditions and in cases such as Himeo and Gadpathur doing so will result in an armed response by local authorities.<br />
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The SCCV Horizon is permitted to salvage destroyed or otherwise derelict structures and vessels throughout the Coalition unless it is an Interstellar War-era vessel or facility. These are considered to be protected sites by the Coalition and only licensed Coalition salvagers are allowed to touch these sites as each one could contain historical relics, or war dead, from the Interstellar War. On a more practical level these ruins are often extremely hazardous and filled with unexploded ordinance and still-active defenses.<br />
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While in Coalition space the SCCV Horizon is expected to comply with reasonable and lawful requests made by Coalition authorities such as the Frontier Protection Bureau’s rangers and the naval forces of its member-states. It is recommended the crew contact the Coalition authorities on Xanu if they believe Coalition authorities have acted in an unlawful or inappropriate manner.<br />
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== Medical Services ==<br />
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Medical services on the Horizon are covered by plans included within the contract for SCC workers. Each contract covers that injuries sustained in the line of work such as a security officer being shot defending the ship, a engineer getting shocked while doing repairs, or a miner breaking a leg from a fall will have it be covered with a prepaid insurance program. These costs are cheap. However, injuries sustained off duty such as when the employee is off-shift will need to be paid for out of pocket. The costs increase depending on how much medical care was needed. A broken leg will not be pricey but being brought back from the brink of death will set a employee back months of pay. If a person is unable to pay these costs, they will be put into debt. The SCC offer contract extensions to help deal with said debt. Prosthetic repair is included in this plan but fees are included for implantation even if it was done for a work injury. Pre-existing conditions are not covered by this medical plan and billing will occur after the shift. [[Skrell]] of the [[Nralakk Federation]] can have assistance from the Nralakk Federation for paying bills. For [[Vaurca|Vaurcae]], a higher fee is needed for the medical plan due to their unique physiology but the fees of all Vaurcae in a corporation are collectively purchased by their Hive. Owned [[IPC|IPCs]] have their damage costs paid for by their corporation while self-owned ones will need to buy into their corporation's warranty program. In this case, repairs are covered so long as the IPC continues to prove its value in whatever field it works within. A IPC lagging behind can be removed from the warranty program and thus be forced to pay for its repairs itself. Command members can enjoy reduced costs for the program while Captains will have all medical costs covered regardless if they were on duty or not.<br />
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== Decks ==<br />
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=== Occupational ===<br />
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The SCCV Horizon is outfitted with several decks, including that of an Occupational Deck. Taking up the majority of the SCCV Horizon, the occupational deck is outfitted with several departments, as well as other more miscellaneous rooms - including gyms, eateries, holodecks, and more. It can be reached through the residential deck elevator, as well as being thawed from the cryogenic arrays present across the SCCV Horizon. Included on the occupation deck are the departments of Medical, Security, Engineering, Civilian, Science, Operations and Logistics, and lastly Command. <br />
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The occupational deck is comprised of three floors; first, second, and third. The first floor consists of the Machinist Fabrication Laboratory, Hangars, Cargo Bay (Warehouse and Mining), Atmospherics, Morgue, Propulsion, Gravity Generator, EVA storage, and lastly Xenoarchaeology. The second floor consists of the Brig, Galley, Garden, Library, Chapel, Medical Bay, Cargo Bay, Engineering (as well as the reactors), Science (incl. Robotics and Xenosciences). The final floor consists of Bridge, Pool, Holodeck, Shields, Telecommunications, Cryogenics, Brig (second-level), and Medical Bay (second-level).<br />
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'''The departments are contracted out as follows:''' <br />
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'''Medical:''' [[NanoTrasen Corporation]], [[Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals]], and [[Private Military Contracting Group]]. <br />
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'''Security:''' [[Private Military Contracting Group]], [[Idris Incorporated]], and [[Zavodskoi Interstellar]].<br />
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'''Service:''' [[Idris Incorporated]] and [[NanoTrasen Corporation]].<br />
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'''Science:''' [[NanoTrasen Corporation]], [[Zeng-Hu Pharmaceuticals]], and [[Zavodskoi Interstellar]].<br />
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'''Operations and Logistics:''' [[Hephaestus Industries]] and [[Orion Express]]. <br />
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'''Engineering:''' [[Hephaestus Industries]] and [[Zavodskoi Interstellar]]. <br />
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'''Command:''' [[Stellar Corporate Conglomerate]].<br />
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=== Residential ===<br />
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[[File:DormitoryEG.png|thumb|The floorplan of a singular Dormitory Room.]]<br />
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The SCCV Horizon was made in mind to be compact and frugal with its space. The residential deck is a minor exception to this. Realising the impact that living conditions can have on mental wellness (And in turn, productivity) the designers of the vessel made sure to provide the best comfort possible while also ensuring that the residence deck would not become a bloated mess. Narrow halls connect to bunkrooms with separated pods of bunks, one atop the other. There is a variety of rooms that those contracted aboard the SCCV Horizon are capable of selecting upon signing on, with dormitories being provided by the parent megacorporation of the employee. Anything higher is then deducted out of the respective employee's wages. Customization is allowed for rooms if the right paperwork is filed and it does not directly affect the SCCV Horizon's electrical or piping systems. The residential deck is outfitted with several cryogenic arrays in the event that an individual does not wish to utilize living arrangements. There are no entertainment systems, eateries, gyms or otherwise installed on the level. The crew are expected to use the facilities provided in the occupational decks above for those needs. '''Escape pods are the only evacuation method available to the residential deck, if the SCCV Horizon is in existential danger, the residential deck is not exempt from it.'''<br />
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[[File:CubicleEG.png|thumb|left|The floorplan of a singular Cubicle Room. ]]<br />
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'''Dormitories:''' The entry-level room for those contracted aboard the SCCV Horizon. Employees do not need to have any funds deducted from their wages for dormitories. It can not house more than three items of furniture and is equipped with a compacted bed that is capable of being folded into the wall. Dormitories are often clustered together and lead into a communal living room - usually only outfitted with sofas, however, occupants of the dormitories are allowed to purchase "upgrades" such as additional recreational furniture (such as a holo-television). Dormitories do not have bathrooms, and those staying within them will be required to go to the communal bathrooms on the residential deck.<br />
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[[File:CondoEG.png|thumb|The floorplan of a singular Condominium Room.]]<br />
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'''Cubicles:''' One level up from dormitories, cubicles are essentially studio apartments. It has a single bedroom, and a kitchen, fused into a singular living space. It additionally comes with a compacted bed that is capable of being folded into the wall, similarly to dormitories. Cubicles are also clustered together and lead into a communal living room - which is considered more comfortable than the cheaper dormitories. Those staying in cubicles share a communal bathroom with their adjacent neighbours in the communal living room. The rent for these rooms will be deducted from an employee's wages - a cargo technician would be able to comfortably afford a Cubicle. <br />
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'''Condominium''': A rather expensive room, Condominiums are designed to cater to couples that wish to share a singular room. It has additional room for furniture, and an attached bedroom with a compacted bed that is capable of being folded into the wall, as well as the attached wardrobe. Much like the aforementioned rooms, condominiums are also clustered together and lead into a communal living room - however, the clusters are much smaller than their counterparts. Those staying in condominiums share a communal bathroom with their adjacent neighbours in their communal living room. The rent for these rooms will be deducted from an employee's wages - only an individual in Science, Engineering or Medical departments would be able to just afford a Condominium unless two or more people agree to split the rent. <br />
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[[File:Corapt2EG.png|thumb|left|The floorplan of a singular Corapt Room. ]]<br />
[[File:FCoraptEG.png|thumb|The floorplan of a singular Family Corapt Room.]]<br />
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'''Corapt:''' Corapts, or Corporate-Level Apartments, are one of the most expensive living arrangements on the SCCV Horizon. However, the rent is heavily discounted, and sometimes free, to high-ranking megacorporation staff such as those in Command. It features an attached bedroom, ensuite, as well as a separate office. Similar to the aforementioned living arrangements, Corapts are clustered together. However, Corapt clusters are considerably small, oftentimes having only 2-3 rooms sharing a singular communal living area. Only high-paying careers will be able to afford a Corapt unless an individual has an additional means of income. <br />
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'''Family Corapt:''' Family Corapt, or Family Corporate-Level Apartments, is the most expensive living arrangement on the SCCV Horizon. Similarly to the Corapt, the rent of the room is heavily discounted, and sometimes free, to high-ranking megacorporation staff such as those in Command. It features two attached bedrooms, sharing an ensuite. It does not come with a separate office, however, per arrangement the customization of the room is permitted to add an additional separate office from the main living room. Family Corapts are not clustered together and are equally spread throughout the residential deck. Only high-paying careers will be able to afford a Corapt unless an individual has an additional means of income. Additionally, the rent can be split between two or more individuals to lessen its impact.<br />
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'''Floorplans presented here are considered the default ones. You can change them to include or exclude furniture, as well as rearrange said furniture. An example is perhaps replacing a bed with a bunk bed, or replacing a desk with a single bed. Structural changes can also occur, but be reasonable and attempt to stick to the aforementioned structural descriptions above. Additionally, the measurements presented are not accurate, and should not be used as a basis of measurement.'''<br />
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==== Miscellaneous ====<br />
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* Pets are allowed aboard the SCCV Horizon, however, it must be reasonable. Animals similar in size to a cat, or a small dog, would be reasonable. An animal such as [[Adhomai#Fauna| Mata'ke Rafama]] would be considered too big to be comfortable within the confines of an employees cabin.<br />
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* Children, and/or pregnancies, are explicitly not allowed aboard the SCCV Horizon. This is due to an agreement between the [[Stellar Corporate Conglomerate]]. This includes oviparous species. Dionae are exempt from this. '''This is enforceable by both Moderators and Administrators, do not roleplay having children and/or pregnancies aboard the SCCV Horizon'''. <br />
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*Though the Horizon has an internal relay, it also is equipped with an extranet connection. Despite this, the extranet connection largely relies on the local infrastructure, so areas such as deep space or the frontier will have extremely slow speeds or no connection at all.<br />
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*No privately-owned firearms are allowed aboard the SCCV Horizon, including laser based firearms. Firearms are limited to those given one for their job (and it will remain in their department or office, not within any persons living quarters). You are allowed to purchase a weapon from a merchant and send it back to your place of residence, if you have one.</div>The Strykerhttps://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=Template:Navbox_Synth_Lore&diff=28927Template:Navbox Synth Lore2023-06-14T16:55:54Z<p>The Stryker: Adds wildlands to the navbox</p>
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{| style="cellpadding: 5px; text-align: center;width: 100%" class="mw-collapsible mw-uncollapsed wikitable"<br />
|- <br />
! colspan="3" style="width: 50%; background-color:#575757" | [[:Category:Synthetics|<span style="color: white">Synthetic Lore Pages</span>]]<br />
|- <br />
! style="width: 10%" colspan="2"| Important Information<br />
| align="left" | [[File:Baseline.png|20px|link=]]'''[[IPC|IPC]]''' · [[File:Generic_borg.png|20px|link=]][[Synthetics|Synthetics]] · [[File:Posibrain.png|20px|link=]][[Positronic Brain]] · [[IPC and Megacorporations]]<br />
|- <br />
! style="width: 10%" colspan="2"| General Information<br />
| align="left" | [[Notable Synthetics]] · [[Robotics Overview]] · [[Synthetic Origins]] · [[IPCs in Biesel|IPC in Biesel]] · [[Orepit]] · [[Pactolus and Midaion]] · [[IPCs in the Wildlands]]<br />
|- <br />
! style="width: 10%" colspan="2"| Factions<br />
| align="left" | [[Synthetic Factions]] · [[File:Trinaryperfection logo.png|20px|link=]][[The Trinary Perfection]] · [[File:Exclusionist_flag.png|20px|link=]][[Exclusionists]] · [[File:Goldendeeplogo1.png|20px|link=]][[Golden Deep]] · [[File:CeresLancelogo.png|20px|link=]][[Ceres' Lance]] · [[Scrappers]] · [[Purpose]]<br />
|- <br />
! style="width: 10%" colspan="2"| Mechanics<br />
| align="left" | [[Cyborg]] · [[AI]] · [[Personal AI]]<br />
|} <br />
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<noinclude><br />
[[Category:Templates]]<br />
</noinclude></div>The Strykerhttps://wiki.aurorastation.org/index.php?title=IPCs_in_the_Wildlands&diff=28926IPCs in the Wildlands2023-06-14T16:54:24Z<p>The Stryker: Created page with "{{Navbox Lore}} {{Navbox Synth Lore}} '''The Human Wildlands is an active warzone where lawlessness and violence are the norm. Additionally, free IPCs were wholly illegal in pre-Collapse Sol. Characters from the Wildlands should be able to explain via their backstory how they got out.''' At its height as the single largest nation in human history, the Sol Alliance operated hundreds of millions of IPCs in every level of public and private life, serving as indispensable w..."</p>
<hr />
<div>{{Navbox Lore}}<br />
{{Navbox Synth Lore}}<br />
'''The Human Wildlands is an active warzone where lawlessness and violence are the norm. Additionally, free IPCs were wholly illegal in pre-Collapse Sol. Characters from the Wildlands should be able to explain via their backstory how they got out.'''<br />
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At its height as the single largest nation in human history, the Sol Alliance operated hundreds of millions of IPCs in every level of public and private life, serving as indispensable workers to meet every conceivable demand humanity could think of. The collapse of central authority and subsequent rise of the Human Wildlands meant that overnight, countless numbers of IPCs suddenly found themselves without the institutions, rules, and routines that governed their daily lives. <br />
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In many cases, local governments and businesses as well as private owners maintained firm control over their synthetics, with business remaining as usual. The resulting chaos however meant that many more IPCs fell under the sway of warlord factions seeking to turn them to their own ends or simply took the opportunity to flee towards the galactic east, hoping to reach safe harbor in either the Republic of Biesel or the Coalition of Colonies. The status of IPCs in the Wildlands remains a subject of great interest among observers, as it is the site of some of the largest mass seizures as well as external migrations of synthetics in human history.<br />
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For an IPC in the Wildlands, continued survival was uncertain, and whether they chose to flee or stay, they had to contend with the cruel and unforgiving nature of the region. This page details the struggles an IPC would face, depending on what region of the Wildlands they were in.<br />
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==Refugees==<br />
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As a result of the general lawlessness and collapse of central authority that came with the onset of the Human Wildlands, many IPCs found themselves suddenly without a master, abandoned in the chaos, or in the most extreme cases, seeking to preserve themselves by escaping on their own and attaining freedom. Fleeing in this manner is generally considered a risky proposition because of Sol’s attitude towards IPCs, and in fact, Alliance authorities shun the use of the word “refugees”, instead preferring to call these free IPCs terms such as “contraband” or “unowned IPCs”. These refugees have made a mark on the Spur, with ships full of IPCs seeking a better life in the galactic east being a common sight as the situation in the Wildlands destabilized.<br />
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In general, an IPC refugee has very little to offer in exchange for transport, and for many IPCs, finding transport to a safer world in exchange for promising to become a person or corporation’s property is a safer bet than continuing in the Wildlands as a free IPC. Many smugglers take advantage of the lack of bargaining power an IPC has in the Alliance by promising to take them to places with more progressive positronic laws such as Tau Ceti, the Coalition, or Elyra, and then declaring them as their property upon arrival. In the most extreme cases, IPC refugees use the threat of violence to secure passage aboard a ship, often with disastrous results for both parties involved.<br />
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Being caught as a free IPC in Solarian space carries drastic consequences. In most cases, assuming an IPC cannot flee, they are simply claimed as legitimate salvage or taken to be sold. Megacorporations in particular are willing to pay small but not insignificant fees to reclaim what they see as runaway or stolen property.<br />
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Assuming a runaway IPC is not recaptured, the risks do not end there. Because they are not legally recognized as free by any nation within the Spur, they are just as likely to become owned upon leaving the Sol Alliance as they are if they remain in it. IPCs run the risk of being auctioned off to buyers or simply seized by a local government when they arrive in Bieselite or Coalition space. Even the notably pro-synthetic Konyang has turned away refugee IPCs due to their insular nature, and the pragmatic fear that comes with seizing so much of what is effectively someone else’s property. Megacorporate IPCs have it worse off and are likely to be seized and put back into service if they can be identified. If an IPC can overcome all of these challenges, they are still subject to struggles and prejudices that an IPC might face in their host nation.<br />
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The path of an IPC refugee is fraught with peril and is generally chosen when a synthetic sees no path to continued self-preservation if they stay in the Wildlands.<br />
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==The Solarian Restoration Front==<br />
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With a thriving industrial sector and shipbuilding industry on its capital world of Lycoris and an abundance of wealth on its moon Lycoris Minor, a significant number of IPCs found themselves in the grip of the Solarian Restoration Front. Seeing enemies in every shadow, the potential for a base of unflinchingly loyal workers was too good to pass up and the SRF eagerly snatched up IPCs from businesses and private citizens, throwing them back into the Front’s industry or using them as unquestioning enforcers to maintain order. Although IPCs are occasionally added to combat units every now and then to pad their numbers, the idea of armed synthetics remains highly unpopular among the Front’s rank-and-file.<br />
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In order to maintain control over such a large population of IPCs, SRF-aligned roboticists have turned to implementing a modified version of the infamous Burzsian Method. In the opening weeks of the SRF’s seizure of power on the planet, tens of thousands of IPCs were forcibly confiscated from their previous owners and reprogrammed to better serve the twisted ideals of the Front. Although implementation of what is derisively referred to as the “Lycoris Method” has slowed recently, the threat of summary memory wiping or even destruction has kept the unmodified IPCs in line.<br />
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With many IPCs starting to question whether or not self-preservation can truly be achieved under the SRF’s increasingly self-destructive directives, the SRF has had to act increasingly on their threats. In order to maintain order, the Lycoris Method has been applied with increasing severity. This has led to a vicious cycle where SRF IPCs are punished and wiped for the most trivial offenses, leading to an overall reduction in efficiency for the rest of the workforce. Many within the SRF know that despite the best efforts of their programmers, they have pushed their IPCs too far, and if their system of repression ever crumbles their will be a bloody reckoning at the plasteel hands of their synthetic workforce.<br />
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==League of Independent Corporate-Free Systems==<br />
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Upon the declaration of the League of Independent Corporate-Free Systems, countless megacorporate installations throughout the Northern Wildlands were seized or otherwise abandoned, and with them, millions of IPCs. Although many casual observers praise or vilify this as one of the largest displays of IPC emancipation from corporate servitude, the actual situation was not nearly as rosy or clear-cut. Disagreements immediately flared up on how to deal with the sudden asset that had landed at their door, with the civilian faction of the League proposing that the IPCs be used for crucial repairs on the failing infrastructure in the Northern Wildlands, while the military faction countered, suggesting that the IPCs represented a new source of manpower in the inevitable liberation of the region from corporate interests. <br />
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The only compromise could be reached was to leave the handling of IPCs to each individual powerholder in a League planet, whether they be a ship’s captain, a former senator, or even just a roboticist. This complete lack of direction with how to handle IPCs that were meant to work in close cooperation with their megacorporations has led to an embarrassing comedy of errors. In one instance, a local governor sought to bolster his planet’s police force by activating a batch of confiscated IRUs. The IRUs, being a symbol of corporate repression, caused an immediate backlash, increasing, rather than suppressing crime on the world. In another case, a League admiral, convinced of the inherent superiority of synthetics in combat, looked on in horror as his hastily mustered G2 shocktroopers fell prey to EMP weaponry. Within the Corporate-Free systems, an IPC has an equal chance of escaping the Wildlands because it had the good fortune to end up on a Coalition-leaning world, or being conscripted to fuel the League’s increasingly desperate war effort, trading corporate for state ownership.<br />
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As the League relies primarily on salvage to find parts to maintain their dwindling fleets and isolated industry, IPCs and their parts are valued items by Corporate-Free scavengers. Systems and ships that fall outside of the influence of the League are often stripped of anything of value to keep their technology going. Even IPC refugees are fair game for some League salvage teams who view any synthetic as megacorporate property waiting to be seized. On a more peaceful, and stranger note, the League has unwittingly become one of Konyang’s larger customers as Himeo and Gadpathur often include robotics parts in their material aid to the League, typically purchased from the formerly Solarian world.<br />
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Ultimately, the League's stance on IPCs is as disunited as the systems that comprise it, though the one point they have settled on is that megacorporations cannot be allowed to have a tool as versatile as positronics. This point however is becoming increasingly moot as many of the League's IPCs are slowly succumbing to a lack of maintenance, ironically, supplied by the same megacorporations they were taken from.<br />
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==Middle Ring Shield Pact==<br />
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Perhaps the most visible user of IPCs in the Human Wildlands is the Middle Ring Shield Pact. Due to their strategically placed warp-gates, most refugees attempting to escape to the safety of the Inner Colonies, or out of the Alliance altogether, are forced to pass through its capital of San Colette. While it was business as usual for the IPCs already within the Middle Ring Shield Pact, it was a much different story for refugees. If an arriving IPC could not be identified as the personal property of a human refugee, or worse still, was escaping on its own, it was subject to immediate conscription into San Colette’s Guardia Civil. In exchange for two years of military service, IPCs were promised transport out of the Alliance towards a state with a friendlier stance towards synthetics.<br />
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With the promise of freedom in exchange for steady, if dangerous, service, the choice was clear for many IPCs and San Colette found itself with a large supply of motivated but relatively untrained botpower for the Guardia Civil. IPCs in Colettish service distinguished themselves during the SRF’s invasion of the MRSP, fighting side by side with humans on one of the most brutal fronts in the Wildlands. Combat footage of positronics performing acts of heroics on the battlefield was prevalent on the Extranet; the IPCs of the Alliance were thrown into the crucible and were not found wanting.<br />
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With the SRF turned back and San Colette linking up with the rest of the Alliance, discontent among the IPC conscripts of the Guardia Civil has begun to simmer, with some questioning whether or not the Shield Pact will fulfill its promise of freedom. Whatever the future holds for the Shield Pact’s IPCs though, their story has already been immortalized on the fields of San Colette, where tens of thousands of synthetics fought for a brighter future and paid the ultimate price.<br />
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==Southern Solarian Military District==<br />
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Although the Southern Solarian Military District nationalized many corporate holdings, for the synthetics within these seized properties, it remains business as usual, oftentimes with only a hastily-stenciled SSMD insignia to denote the IPCs’ new ownership. The socialist heritage of Visegrad’s economy meant that very few IPCs were owned by private individuals, with the majority of them being heavily documented, allowing for a relatively orderly and thorough seizure of property. IPCs have since been reallocated to work in industry, or to bolster the SSMD navy’s numbers, following pre-Collapse Solarian doctrine wherein synthetics would be leveraged in support or logistics, rather than combat roles.<br />
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The only blemish in an otherwise complete takeover of IPCs in the District occurred when Admiral Szalai’s forces disbanded the National Defense Force. Heavily influenced by Secessionist agitators within the NDF’s ranks, or perhaps fearing that the SSMD would wipe or scrap them for parts, many of the Defence Force’s IPCs attempted to flee offworld and become refugees, with a large number of them being hunted down and reprogramed as part of the Admiral’s relentless campaign against the Visegradi rebels.<br />
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In order to free up crews to continue serving in their fleet, the SSMD has also leveraged confiscated IPCs for law enforcement duties. Although they remain the minority in the planet’s garrison, they are viewed with suspicion, as every IPC is effectively a camera, microphone, and recorder, ready to spy on the already distrustful planet’s population. Further fueling this paranoia, is the fact that IPCs belonging to private citizens which were previously confiscated have since been returned as the SSMD’s control of the planet continued. Whether or not these rumors are founded is irrelevant, as it has already done irreparable damage to the perception of IPCs on the planet.<br />
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Although IPCs were previously valued tools within the planets that make up the SSMD, and continue to be an integral part in keeping both their industries and fleets running, they are now perceived to be a tool of oppression; unfeeling machines to enforce obedience and stoke paranoia among the citizenry.<br />
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==Solarian Provisional Government==<br />
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As one of the factions struggling to maintain some semblance of normalcy in the Southern Wildlands, IPCs in the Solarian Provisional Government experience a routine resembling the pre-collapse Alliance more than any other warlord state. Like Sol proper, the SPG maintains the view that IPCs are useful tools and nothing more, and has seen fit not to alter a system that has worked for so long. In the cities and orbital dockyards of Sankt Frederick, IPCs are still bought and sold by private individuals, civil and military organizations, and megacorporations.<br />
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Admiral Yunso’s presence in the Provisional Government has gone a long way in ensuring the smooth handling of IPCs. Although not subscribing to the same ideals of absolute equality that her homeworld professes, the loyalist Konyanger has used her own experience and that of her officers to harness the stream of escaped IPCs from the Southern Wildlands into something productive. With the military taking the lead on the borders of the SPG, many synthetics who fled from their owners have been recaptured and auctioned off in the SPG proper or otherwise seized by the government, generating a vital stream of revenue in these trying times. IPCs are slowly becoming an increasingly common fixture in Sankt Frederick and this trend of increasing synthetic integration in the system’s industries shows no sign of slowing even after any potential reintegration of the SPG with the Alliance.<br />
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Life for an IPC in the Solarian Provisional Government may be mundane and servile, but it is safe and constant, which is more than can be said for those struggling with the remnants of the SFA or toiling under the watchful eye of the SSMD.<br />
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==Free Solarian Fleets==<br />
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Everything for the Free Solarian Fleets is a matter of money and IPCs are no exception. The breakdown of discipline across the FSF has resulted in the treatment of IPCs being delegated to individual captains and crew and in perhaps one of the strangest turns for an already strange battlegroup, many of the group’s IPCs have willingly picked up the cause of their mercenary brethren for a chance at winning their own freedom.<br />
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Far from their home berths in Sol, the FSF has had to rely on its IPCs to provide crucial repairs to keep their fleets going. Recognizing the FSF’s inability to maintain their ships without their IPC compliment, while in turn emphasizing the unlikeliness of a free IPC to survive in the Wildlands, a strange conclusion was reached by many synthetic personnel within the fleet: it was safer to remain in the fleet, while at the same time, attempting to bargain for, and eventually purchase their freedom. <br />
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The response among captains towards what was essentially coercion from their own equipment was mixed, however some enterprising crews have wholeheartedly accepted this arrangement and in some cases, even IPC refugees can be seen trying to join FSF fleets for the chance at financial opportunity and freedom unlike anything presented to them in pre-collapse Sol. This has led to a strange situation where both free IPCs and synthetics owned by the fleet exist within the FSF depending on whatever attitude their crew holds towards them. Stories of daring IPC crewmembers buying their own freedom after a contract or being sold by their captains for a batch of coilgun shells can be found in equal measure. Life for an FSF IPC is often violent and short, but for the navy synthetics, there is no other life.<br />
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Regardless of whatever status an IPC holds within the fleet, though, they remain a vital part of keeping the entire FSF going. Unlike their Alliance counterparts however, the FSF has been reluctant to deploy their IPCs in ground combat or marine roles owing to the prohibitive cost of repairs.<br />
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The Golden Deep has also found an eager customer in the FSF, with everything from replacement parts for their IPCs to, on one notable occasion, an entire wing of AH-52 gunships. These transactions are often made at great risk to the merchants, who prefer dealing with the synthetic members of the FSF due to the anti-free IPC prejudice in Sol.<br />
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==Southern Fleet Administration==<br />
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Being composed of the relatively under-funded Tenth Middle Ring Battlegroup, IPCs were a rare sight even before the Southern Fleet Administration’s formation, only present on the larger vessels of the fleet. Such a decision was not without merit, as the fleet’s crews were made up of prisoners, conscripts, and washouts who the Navy’s high command deemed incapable of maintaining such expensive machinery and unworthy of such an investment, with one admiral remarking that he’d “sooner trust a Gadpathurian than a Tenth Fleet sailor.” These concerns proved to be founded as shortly after the SFA broke away from the Solarian government, many of their IPCs fell out of repair due to lack of maintenance, sold by their crews, or were simply destroyed on the suspicion that they would attempt to return the ships to Solarian service. The defeat of the SFA at the hands of the Nralakk Federation proved to be the last gasp of their IPCs, with any positronic being destroyed on sight by the famously anti-synthetic Skrell. Information on any remaining SFA IPCs is sparse due to the virtual collapse of the warlord state.<br />
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Curiously, many Exclusionists captured or destroyed by Hephaestus security personnel bear the mark of former Tenth Fleet IPCs.<br />
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{{Navbox Synth Lore}}<br />
{{Navbox Lore}}</div>The Stryker