The Mote Universe is a quadripartite civilisation. The four government-controlled areas of the universe follow four different political dogmas. These four areas are relatively civilised, each area to varying degrees of order. In addition to the four political groups there is also "The Edge" which, as the name suggests, is at the maximum extent of human exploration and forms a neutral space between civilisation and the unknown.
The four factions are:
Government and Economy: A democratic society which has based its future growth on exporting the knowledge of its populace and heavy industry. Its economy is capitalist and affluent.
Justice: Laws are strict and well enforced. There is also a strong human rights movement within the Confederacy which means that wrongful arrests are almost unheard of. Quite a safe place to live.
Defence: Has extremely strong defence against attack. Will not allow any border incursions what-so-ever. Open to treaty negotiation and would rather use diplomacy than go to war. Will only attack if provoked. Has a habit of wading into any and everyone's business to right supposed wrongs.
Capital world: Merinda
Government and Economy: An imperial society ruled by a despotic tyrant, Daldrielle IV. Although once a thriving trade based nation, internal conflicts have rocked the Empire and caused pirates and rebels to prey upon its space lanes. However, there are still many rich planets within the Empire which remain untouched by its problems.
Justice: Laws used to be rigorously enforced within the Empire, but the government has become corrupt after years of embezzlement of public funds. Most police are easily bribed and may commit minor injustices to supplement their poor pay. They rarely respond to distress signals.
Defence: Has a large standing army but poor technology to back it up. Very antagonistic towards its neighbours and has expansionist foreign policies. Will only negotiate if it believes the outcome will be to its advantage. Some systems are completely without defence due to budget allocation problems.
Capital world: Brone
Government and Economy: An anarchistic communist society, governed by Chairman Vetek and his council or people's representatives. The people of the Republic are hard working agriculturists and trade mainly in agricultural commodities. Natural resources are low in the populated systems of the Republic and thus extensive mining and importing of certain raw materials is needed. The population is expanding quickly.
Justice: Laws are harsh but generally fair. Police may accept bribes but only for minor crimes. The police force is very large due to the government's policy of full employment.
Defence: Has a large defence force which is mainly used to protect its own member systems and keep them in line. Technology is old but well maintained. Will not tolerate border incursions or rebellion, but will negotiate in all circumstances.
Capital world: Eltok
Government and Economy: Oligarchic government consisting of a council of land owners. The economy is guided by spiritual concerns alone and cycles from extreme wealth to poverty. Technology and spiritual items are the main products of the Hegemony.
Justice: The laws are few but enforced without leniency. Police cannot be bribed and are authorised to use deadly force. The police follow a religious code and consider their deity able to prevent miscarriages of justice.
Defence: The Hegemony may be prone to fighting holy wars. They have strong ideas about their inherited territory and a high level of technology at their disposal. When provoked are tenacious and can also be antagonistic towards non-believers.
Capital worlds: Jovira, Xacin, Letan, Wirack, Arguntium, Solassad.
In edition to the four political factions there is also the Peace Corps. This is an organisation which is unaffiliated with any political faction and is dedicated to humanitarian causes, such as setting up medical stations within war zones and help with rebuilding after natural disasters. The Peace Corps will also mediate between warring factions and use force to protect humanitarian aid missions.
Within the Mote universe there are three dominant religions which about half the citizens follow to a lesser or greater degree. They are the following:
Space Adventism: The worshipping of the very fabric of space itself and its holistic nature. In its most extreme forms this involves spending considerable amounts of time in deep space meditating on the holistic nature and oneness of space. There are many sects and splinter groups who hold differing ideas on the amount and nature of the meditation needed to achieve enlightenment. It is believed that after death the soul becomes one with the universe and may be reborn as any object the universe chooses. Thus the most devout Space Adventists consider all inanimate objects to have a soul. Eventually the soul will have passed through enough rebirths and may become one with the fabric of space itself. The number of rebirths may be lowered through proper living and meditation.
The Sons and Daughters of Gaia: A group which believes in the sacred nature of all planets. They hold the belief that no one should ever leave the planet on which they were born, although recently splinter groups have advocated the use of space for travel, all groups hate the Space Adventist's worship of space. Despite their ban on space travel, special dispensation was granted by Guru Gaian (their spiritual leader) to their Jihad Group to go into space in order to crush their enemies. The Sons and Daughters of Gaia are militant environmentalists, protesting about industrial development wherever it occurs. The Gaians believe that after death everyone returns to the spirit of the planet they were born on, if the person is not on that planet their soul may become lost and never return. This diminishes the soul of the planet as a whole and hence their dislike of those who leave their planet of birth. It is this spirit that Gaians worship.
Lartism: Mainly followed by the occupants of the Hegemony, although becoming increasingly popular in other factions as well. It is based around the concept of the existence of Lart, the god of retribution. It is thought that Lart will punish those who are misguided by a swift rap to the head with a book (or, as some sects believe, a rolled up newspaper) once they have gone to the afterlife. The heaviness of the book (or size of newspaper) is increased by the magnitude of the misguided acts committed. There are also strong elements of morality and trust in Lart implied within the religion. In order to diminish the size of the object used by Lart in the afterlife, priests of Lart are authorised to be issued with a "lart" (note the lowercase letter) so that they may "lart" their congregation and thus absolve them from the minor misguided acts they have committed.
A number of career paths are open to Mote universe citizens. These include trader, soldier, spy, money lender, assassin, peace corps worker and miner. Mote space is vast and has many opportunities and dangers.
There are of course pirates and other reprobates wherever the intrepid explorer might want to go, but they are unlikely to appear in the densely inhabited systems where there is known to be a good police presence. Many systems have their own organised crime syndicates which will not tolerate intruding criminals unless they pay a tithe to the syndicate out of their profits. However, serious offenders in the Mote universe will not always be dealt with by the police, there is also a mysterious organisation called the Cabal which mete out justice if no other force is capable of doing so. It is not necessary to have broken any specific laws only to have committed a perceived injustice.
A number of alien species also frequent Mote space but are rarely seen by humans. These aliens are often cryptic in their communications and may be difficult to trade with. Aliens may have unusual items which are of considerable worth to humans and therefore it could be worth attempting to trade with them.
All space stations and planetary bases have trade facilities as
well as port services and a bulletin board. Trade is controlled by the
International Federation of Free Trade (sometimes known as FOF), who
maintain trade variables. There are X trade items:
To be decided
Income can also be gained from mining and selling ore. Mining is governed by the Miners Guild which demands a tithe on all profits gained from planetary exploitation. This tithe does not include asteroids or other bodies smaller than 2.5 x 1017 kilotonnes.
It may be helpful for denizens of the universe to learn Omniglot the language of the space lanes. This comprises a number of symbols which are used to mean words and phrases. It is worth getting to grips with the language as even aliens will use it as an intermediary.
There are a number of ships available to the Mote citizen. Each political faction has its own ships and they are designed under that faction's style. Faction specific ships are rarely available anywhere other than the faction where they were built. Travel between systems is through jump gates. Only larger ships have their own jump gate generators as these pieces of equipment are expensive.
Each jump gate is only linked to a finite number of gates and several jumps may be required to reach remote systems. Some systems have several jump gates which each link to different jump gates. Jump gates have been known to go wrong, but this happens rarely. When a jump gate malfunctions it may spit out the traveller at any jump gate within that gate system. If a self-created jump point malfunctions en-route it may throw the traveller out into empty space.
The non-factional Peace Corps hospital at Fornash will take any and all wounded from any political group. This is located on the central meeting point between all four factions. Peace corps outposts are also situated on key planets where there could be violent clashes in the system. But note that it is very unlikely that space battles will result in treatable casualties, these outposts are created mainly to treat planet bound wounded. On the bright side, all ships are equipped with escape pods which automatically take the occupant to the nearest inhabited planet.
That should be all you need to know, more information will be added as it becomes available.
© Thalia Quinney, September 2000