Setting overview

[thaminga]

A reference post for people, since I have nothing of the sort actually written up and published online. <3


General setting: The year is 3099 PR - 2017 CE for those of us playing at home, and the Milky Way is getting somewhat cramped, dominated by a broad constellation of interstellar empires divided into three different camps in a situation akin to Earth's Cold War. Point of divergence: none, as none of these events have had any meaningful influence on events on Earth itself.

The various interstellar empires themselves have come about naturally, without the influence from a progenitor species or anything of the sort. Coincidence has brought them into space at similar timeframes before any one empire could dominate the entire galaxy; travel itself generally happens through wormholes, with Alcubierre drives generally remaining reserved for more specific utilities (e.g. exploration, jobs that require one to go off the rails). The general technology level is on the brink of Type III on the Kardashev scale, with many empires making efforts to explore beyond the confines of the Milky Way; some collaboratively, some by themselves.

The overall makeup of these empires varies vastly. Extensive genemodding, AI, mind upload and other personal modification technologies exist, though their appliance varies between different empires. Transapient AI - which is to say, a mind consisting of sapient (or equivalent) subroutines that make up a consciousness greater than the sum of its parts (much like ordinary sapient minds like ours do with only-as-basally-as-possible sentient brain cells), but aren't exactly godlike - while influential, they are not a source of absolute political power as they are in many other science fiction settings that feature them.

Most of the galaxy is bound in some kind of federation of alliance. These include:

Galactic Concord

The biggest and most closely bound of the three major alliances, xenophilic and cooperative in attitude, and home to largely socialist polities; generally non-interventionist in affairs outside its own sphere of influence, but always on the look for new members to build up a better future. Constituent polities include:

• the Althoin Realm (inner Sagittarius Arm, neighboring corewards regions, the Orion Spur, part of the Far 3 kpc Arm) - home of the Althoinui including the author's persona, though also home to many other immigrant species. In spite of the name, actually a confederation of largely communist, hedonistic, planet-level societies generally run as individual ecosystems by their governments. Planetside, generally converges into very large cities with practically unspoiled nature inbetween.
• the Tnarrax Republic (outer Sagittarius Arm, bordering portions of Scutum-Centaurus Arm) - home of the Tnarrax, an amphibious race with a vaguely arthropod-like appearance. Most planetary governments are syndicalist in character, providing all necessities and post-scarcity goods for free, while scarce goods are subject to a market economy. In some ways more humanlike than the Althoinui in their general societal habits, though the cultures themselves are quite alien indeed.
• the Red-Blue-Red Continuum (mid-Perseus Arm) - home to an oceanic race that communicates visually using chromatophores within their skin. Appearance can be best described as mollusc-like with an arthropod-like body plan, featuring a central body with a head attached to the front, limbs to the side (eight rather smooth tentacles split at the ends, with the final pair sporting a set of fins) and a mantle containing vital organs towards the rear end. Society is best described as a great collective where individuals exist, but lines between them are greatly blurred; thoughts are freely exchanged, fantasy may be as much of a group activity as it may be a singular one, privacy in the human sense does not quite exist.
• Shyux Interplanetary Commune (innermost Perseus Arm, parts of the core and adjacent parts of the 3 kpc Arms) - home of the Shyux (singular: Chyux); an ever so vaguely reptilian looking species with a centaur-esque body plan. Highly anarchic, in line with the highly individualized lives of the Shyux themselves; society is merely a loose congregation of people with common interests looking after each other, but generally not actually living together in any meaningful way. Government in the general sense similarly does not exist; anything that requires a great degree of organization is undertaken through an informal type of direct democracy, with a consensus between people and discussion taking the place of codified law.
• the Postsingularity Integration (inner Norma Arm) - an empire founded by AI invented by an earlier, now apparently extinct race - largely transapient, though with many sapient AI and organic citizens. Rather more isolationist than the rest, but will nevertheless intervene when necessary. Planetary environments are often not much to write home about; lifeless worlds are preferred over anything else, with society itself being primarily confined to virtual environments. Nevertheless some habitable worlds do consider themselves part of the Integration, being mostly home to the aforementioned sapient AI and organic types.

Liberty Alliance

A more loosely bound group of empires, with little in common individually beyond their opposition to the Galactic Concordat, and a general view of "freedom" to include the right to violate the rights of others. More outwardly interventionistic, with many of its constituent empires meddling with the affairs of non-spacefaring species within for various reasons. Major constituent polities include:

• the Honor Coalition of Mulhuk (mid-Norma Arm, neighboring portions of the Scutum-Centaurus Arm): A group of loosely bound megaclans of the Mulhuk, a large, radially symmetric, furred species adapted to life on land. Arguably the friendliest among the Liberty Alliance, with a tendency to view life as a series of battles - if not with the world or other people, then with oneself. Obviously, a tribalistic system of government; individual megaclans range from highly socialist to utterly ruthless not only to others, but their own as well.
• CENTERCO (inner Scutum-Centaurus Arm, Far 3 kpc Arm): A megacorporation that reportedly grew from a railway conglomerate several millennia ago. Citizenship is identical to employment; employees include people from so many places that it's hard to tell which species actually originated the company.
• the Zhoghothuaq Dominion (mid-Scutum-Centaurus Arm): Outwardly militaristic, the Zhothoghuaq Dominion is home to the Zhothoghuaq; a nocturnal race covered in almost fur-like feathers, Physically strong if relatively small in size, this slithering species sports only two limbs to use as manipulators, though many have since (sometimes radically) altered their bodies for increased physical prowess. Highly militaristic to the point of permeating every aspect of life, the dominant philosophy is one of the entire universe belonging to themselves; needless to say, this empire often sheds refugees.
• the Aaahhuq Celestial Eminence (mid-Norma Arm): A theocracy of the Aaahhuq; a soft-skinned, brightly colored flying species with four pairs of limbs adapted to wet environments, who (generally) revere a religious leader who is also their primary sovereign. Contains many dissident factions of worlds who have either followed a different religious path, or rejected the order in place outright.

Introspective Council

Another loosely bound group, but with a common value and a common interest, however paradoxical: isolationism. For various reasons, these empires have decided that the best way to navigate the Universe is to keep to themselves, expanding outwards to maximize their chances of long term survival, but little more than that. Views the Galactic Concordat as friendlier than the Liberty Alliance, but wouldn't call either true allies by any means. 

• the Kirnitar Hierarchy (outer Perseus Arm): A theocracy of the Kirnitar, a doubly bilaterally symmetric species of the ocean with a very vague resemblance to gastropods and comb jellyfish, focused most of all on inward peace and exploring every possible layer of reality.
• the Feudal Worlds of Cezttsania (outer Outer Arm): A feudal society of the Yenagh, a large, four-limbed burrowing species covered in scales native to the desert that communicates through touch and secondarily, sound. Individual castes work as societies of their own, catering to another as the social order demands.
• The Ascendancy (outermost Sagittarius Arm): A virtualized continuum of minds that doesn't -quite- make up a single, far transapient mind of its own. Appears to have rejected the universe outright, only expanding outwards to overcome hardware limitations and ensure its own survival.
• the Idyll of Wattunga (mid-Outer Arm): A paradoxically xenophilic but highly utilitarian, almost primitivist civilization. From an outside perspective, hard to tell what the dominant species actually is; contains many, many alien lifeforms in spite of its apparent inward focus - everyone can join, but outward contact is generally avoided. Appears to be rather anarchic and mutualistic in nature.

Unaligned empires

Empires that, for a variety of reasons, aren't part of any major alliance or federation.

• the Warp Sector (outer Scutum-Centaurus Arm): A secretive polity, with no dominant species; ruled by a philosophy of eternal change, those who move in never stay their old selves for long.
• the Automated Resistance (inner Outer Arm): An empire of AI that much like the Postsingularity Integration superseded its organic predecessors, although much more violently so. Refuses all contact with organic life.
• YAGAX (galactic core): A collective of smaller empires situated in the galactic core, where stellar density is high and life rather more transient. Poorly accessible, and generally too busy with itself to greatly interact with the outside world.