HaMaadimi Imperium

[CBR JGWRR]

"It is with great sadness that I must report the departure of Imperatrix Naomi HaMaadimi, who died overnight. My mother was a woman who's ambition shaped the fates of interstellar nations, with her peak success coming even at her great age of her ninth decade when she began the Terran Alliance. Her valiant leadership sets an example for the future, and gives a legacy we aspire to live up to."

Imperatrix Rivkah HaMaadimi, 2251/08/14

 

[Nikolai]

Hopefully it was a natural death...

 

[CBR JGWRR]

She was 94, with the leader age before death can happen at 90. So, very likely simple old age. Had I realised that earlier, I would have written more on the transition from Naomi HaMaadimi to Rivkah, but things were so busy with the Carbaran cold war that I never checked...

It had only been a few days since Naomi had entered the bunker, but now she was gone, her ashes scattered to the Martian soil.

For Rivkah, it was business as usual. Imperator HaMaadimi had always understood that identifiable public figures are possible targets for assassination, and therefore continuation plans for replacing him were thought through from the very beginning. The goal of such plans were that he could be successfully replaced before his body even hit the ground, if it came to that. As a result of this rather grim potential-covering attitude therefore, there were hundreds of people trained who could take over Ehyeh Ventures with a second of notice, and to incapacitate the Imperium would need to take out tens of thousands of individuals simultaneously - but even then Imperator HaMaadimi had made sure the plan was so well understood that defeating the concept of the Imperium was functionally impossible - all part of seeing the vision in action.

As a result, the Imperium had one thing that imperial lineages of older periods did not; being the son or daughter of the Imperator did not get you the job. Instead, you had to compete with others who earned their places. Children of the Imperator studied the governance of billions from when they were playing with soft toys as little children, and by the time they were into teenage years they were doing real world governance tests in settlements. By their twenties and thirties, they were governors of planets, and the most promising child would be the heir who was the junior partner in a co-regency that steadily handed over more and more to the junior, before in turn the Junior took the place of the elder, and their child taking the place of the Junior.

By the time Rivkah therefore took the official title of Imperatrix of Sol (and beyond), she had already had fourty years of co-regency, and ten years before that of governing Mars.

 

[Nikolai]

Sounds better yes. Of course, as long as no one cheats.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

The final test is this:

You are given a planetary body as a clean slate, a budget of equivalent to one trillion 2019 USD (ongoing inflation means 2020/2021 USD is rapidly losing value) to cover initial capital costs, and you are allowed to seek real external investors for extra funds, who naturally expect a real return on investment. Ten thousand volunteers are hired and trained as pioneers to be the citizens of your civilisation.

You have ten years to build a civilisation, in whatever way you see fit, that has the highest average and minimum living standards possible, with as high a return on investment for the initial trillion plus any external backers as possible, and as high a final dividend payment to your pioneers as possible.

Succeed in a way worthy of an Imperator/Imperatrix, and the colony becomes your personal Imperium, albeit as a vassal state. Unless you want to stay in the Imperium as a whole of course, as achieving this means you qualify as a planetary or sector governor.

A passing grade means you achieved beating ten years worth of interest on the initial investment at a nominal rate of 10%, plus any extra investor backing at the terms negotiated with them, plus training and wages of the ten thousand volunteers.

Fail, and you have to repay the money wasted because of your failure.

Completely screw up, and whoever survives of the ten thousand volunteers will rip you limb from limb as a flotilla of warships ensures you don't escape off world. In the event that there are no pioneers who survived, marines come down instead.

----

Unfortunately, Stellaris doesn't really have mechanics to allow this process. I know how I would implement it though - start off as a planetary decision for uncolonised, uninhabitable terraforming candidate planets, pay initial costs, then wait ten years to have an event that either spawns an independent vassal, a new colony or a social research amount (the failures get studied to see what can be learned) - but I don't know where to begin trying to code it.

 

[Nikolai]

That's a very intriguing concept, I hope someone at PDS takes notice! Ever considered posting it in the suggestion forum?

 

[CBR JGWRR]

Rivkah, satisfied that the Cabaran conflict had settled with the formation of the Terran Alliance, decided to bring back another legacy of Earth history - the Constitution class. First commissioned in 2251 (the year in which Christopher Pike was given command of the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701 in Star Trek chronology; unfortunately time had passed too far to bring it back in time for the 2245 first service date) the new generation of Science Ships made use of the new Impulse relativistic drives, and featured controlled artificial gravity; no more centrifuge hours or spinning rings. Just boldly going where no one from the Imperium had gone before.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

That's a very intriguing concept, I hope someone at PDS takes notice! Ever considered posting it in the suggestion forum?

I could. It would fit as a means of enabling pre-Climate Restoration colonisation of terraforming candidates, if nothing else. I suppose it depends on the odds to balance it; 10% chance of a success with gaining a Governor Leader and refund of costs, 30% chance of gaining a colony and refund of costs, 30% chance of gaining a colony but losing some Energy Credits and lastly 20% chance of failure, is almost inevitably going to be better.

But, it certainly makes you think differently about the prospects of terraforming. Huge upfront costs, but the return is a new planet; I'd guess the retail value of a terraformed Mars to a standard of we can live there with selected strains of earth plants modified to live on Martian soil - which is no means the end state of terraformed Mars, but roughly the expected result of my ideas in this type of scenario - to be roughly a third of the Earth's, could be estimated by comparison to Earth, and the retail value of present day Earth is in the region of 200 trillion dollars, so factoring in Mars' lower surface area (as that is the limit to construction more than mass) gives 60 trillion dollars. Which is a more than viable return on investment.

And a large chunk of that capital cost is developing the genetically engineered plants, which itself is a technology with an incredibly high economic return for future projects, and therefore isn't strictly a Martian cost exactly.

The question is, would you finish the terraforming process, or continue on to making it a ecumenopolis? A barren world with water and a breathable atmosphere would be a far better candidate than a natural world, and the rental value of a planet-wide city has to be in the quadrillions of dollars per year.

---

I'm really not a fan of the present habitability system, I have to confess; stone age technology is sufficient to enable Humans to inhabit almost any environment on the surface of earth, and on merely early 21st century tech - to say nothing of what we could theoretically have by 2200, which again in my view is way too far ahead for Humanity to still only have one planet - we make even trips to Antarctica doable for amusement.

Extrapolating what we can already achieve to other planets, and honestly I just do not see a justification for the habitability system as it stands; of the nine base types of habitable planets, only Arctic or Desert ones would really trouble Human colonists.

What I would be in favour of changing it to is that when you initially settle a planet, it's very low habitability - all the factors you have to adjust to are yet to be adjusted to. But, over time, you adapt to the planet and you adapt the planet, and you would naturally see a process of speciation into more specialised forms that suit that particular world - for example, a terraformed Mars would lead to noticably taller people with weaker bones and muscles unless they took steps to counteract these natural results of a low gravity environment.

In time, this would have fascinating implications for people who then wanted to return to the homeworld, as they now have to adjust all over again.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

It's also not the only training solution, just the best one for this period. Once you can build a Dyson Sphere, you could make it into a gigantic computer that could legit simulate entire galaxies.

Imagine the benefits when you can train your leadership on simulators powerful enough to accurately model such scenarios.

And thread has posted in the suggestion forums.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

Rivkah watched the play room from the door, smiling. Darek, her little four year old, didn't notice her, too busy playing. He was busy having some human toys piling blocks up into a tower, before making a dinosaur toy smash it down. Rivkah contemplated the social commentary it symbolised. "Darek, why did Rexy destroy the tower?"

Darek swiveled instantly. "Because he's the baddie."

Rivkah gently picked him up. "Why's that?"

Darek was quiet, thinking. After a long enough pause to become awkward, he answered with a simple "He just is."

"Is that all he is?"

Darek now went very quiet.

"There's another way." Rivkah put him down. "Think about this - what is Rexy's thinking process here? What are the people thinking? There's a better way." She picked up some of the human toys, mimed them feeding Rexy, then Rexy helping the humans. "Rexy is a carnivore; Humans by contrast, rely on farming, and we can also raise cattle. By exchanging food for labour, we can work together, and we can achieve much more - Rexy gains in improved quality of life, and we gain the alliegance of a Tyrannosaur. It's how we domesticated wolves into dogs."

Darek sat still, looking intently at Rexy.

"Sometimes, the baddie isn't the baddie; they have thoughts, desires, goals they want to achieve. Characters with complex motivations." Rivkah contemplated the speech for a moment, thinking about how this conversation stemmed from the old Imperator, who had a similar one with his children at this age. She thought about the application to the Cabaran situation. "Very rarely do we ever see pure evil, malevolence for it's own sake. And when we do, we deal justice, for we are order from chaos. But Rexy here is not evil; he's thinking about his hunger."

She picked him up, and held him to her face. "You will be an Imperator. You must learn to understand people and creatures, and how to convince them that what your goals are, is best for them too."

She put him back down with the toys, to let him think about it, smiled, and left quietly. "The question is, what motivates the Cabaran?"

 

[Nikolai]

A very good question. And is it compatible in any way with human motivations?

 

[CBR JGWRR]

What makes you think they are so far away?

 

[CBR JGWRR]

Rivkah entered the club slowly, her foil in the quick release holster. Music - or at least the residents of the place called it such, Imperator HaMaadimi would have described it as an astrometric droid being forced to suffer a prolonged epileptic fit -blared from speakers all around. The palid walls once painted bright yellow were cracked and disfigured, almost emblematic of the rot within.

The residents were the lowest of the Imperium, divided into two groups. The punishment for slave traders and slave owners alike was crucifixion, but the profit in the trading of flesh meant there was no shortage of idiots willing to get a cut by betting they could evade the Praetorians Naomi raised to crush the trade, and Imperial prosperity meant there were clientele willing to buy. The other group were those for sale.

And they were a sorry state; surgical alterations, genetic rewrites, clones, smuggled sapients... The effect was like a zoo of animals, a horror compared to the dignity sapient life should possess.

It was extremely risky, but the contact - a smuggler within the Cabaran Defence Authority, albeit not of slaves, but trafficking guns and booze - was the only Cabaran willing to talk to the Imperium. Rivkah carefully walked, finding the fear that griped her fascinating. She was a master bladeswoman, armoured in the best armour the Imperium could make and she was afraid here. Fascinating.

She operated out of the mind's eye - feel the emotion, let it flow, but do not let it control you - passing the fear, and pressed in. Eventually, she found the six-eyed werewolf-like Cabaran. He wore some of his wares where his claws could reach them, while the others were on the table. She activated her acoustic jam-field surreptitiously as she took a seat.

"Welcome. First, my price for the information you want is asylum, an official armed guard, and immunity to extraction."

"Granted."

"Look into my eyes Imperatrix, and tell me what you see."

Rivkah looked; six deep black eyes, arranged in three pairs, two focused forward, estimated 180 degree forward vision, backed by two at roughly 45 degrees further round, and a last pair on the side of the head; total estimate between 270 and 300 degree vision at quality humans had 0 to 45 degrees from fore in either direction. But there was something familiar... "Your ancestors belonged to Canis Familiaris."

The Cabaran nodded. Rivkah calculated the permutations.

"Who uplifted you?"

"You did."

"The Imperium banned the practice of uplifting."

"Yes. Imperator HaMaadimi did; and among the exiles who left because of it was a genetic research group who took their dogs with them."

"They uplifted you as slaves."

"Precisely what the Imperator hoped to avoid with the ban, which is why the Defence Authority has not attacked the Imperium yet."

"They uplifted you, and you rebelled to at least partial success."

"Yes. But many billions of us are still enslaved by the megacorporate entity."

Rivkah searched her memory of the exiles, before settling on the most likely candidate. "Synergetics Technologies."

"Yes. Although they changed it to Synergetics Industries."

"Can there be a peace between us?"

"No. Our ancestors were kept as pets by you humans for thousands of years. Still are. How can we possibly have peace when it is in your nature to feel that you are superior? The only peace can be the peace of the jungle."

"You're afraid of us."

"Which is why we must make you afraid of us too; we cannot be your pets again. We do not want war, but we must survive. If all humans were like your family, we might have a chance of cooperation. But look around; everyone in this room knows that trading slaves gets you nailed to a cross and left to die horribly by asphyxiation. Yet here we are."

Rivkah raised her arm to her mouth. "Engage."

Moments later, people rushed in all directions trying to escape; six hundred Praetorians had decloaked and were advancing.


-----

The Cabaran watched from his seat; blood covered the floor where slavers had been hacked down. Rivkah had the crazed look of the warrior covered in blood when none of it was their own. Only one slaver remained, Rivkah's foil at his throat. She looked at the Cabaran. "This is the Imperium's answer to Synergetics Industries."

The blow was clean; Rivkah rolled the head along the slick floor towards him. "Tell your Defence Authority that the Imperium will defend them."

"I appreciate the gesture Imperatrix, but I cannot go back - to tell you what I told you means my death if I return."

"Ah."

 

[Nikolai]

Surely some well placed holovideos could help spread the news?

 

[CBR JGWRR]

The problem is much, much deeper than that. Thousands of years of domestication that left them much weaker than they were before we shaped them to our desire, followed by many generations of slavery once uplifted; how could they trust humans?

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"If Aldrin took our first step, then I have taken our second; Humanity has begun to walk among the stars. But all of these are only the first clumsy steps of the child as they push themselves up from the floor. We cannot rest on our laurels, but we must keep moving forward. We must reach for the gas giants, we must reach for Centauri. Humanity cannot live on the cradle forever."

Rivkah let the recording repeat itself.

The Imperium had grown so vast - fourty star systems, Human settlements on hundreds of worlds, with almost a dozen worlds terraformed to a finished Earth-like standard.

And well, Humanity itself was truly interstellar - in the sixty years since the Imperium left Sol, they had formed an alliance with some of those who left before that point, and new contacts were progressing; the re-contact with the Neo-Klingons - another faction who left with the Imperator's ban on genetic engineering of sapients, although at least they were modifying themselves and not innocent dogs, trying to make themselves into Klingons even if it hadn't quite worked yet, although they were by far the most advanced faction discovered so far - had been very fruitful, with them accepting associate status with the Terran Alliance. And the new contact of the Sophont Alliance - a "race" of androids was a fascinating discovery.

It wasn't all good news though; the ATFR program - a network of automated terraforming robots - had also been refound, and they considered both the Commonwealths to be enemies. And, Synergetics Industries had also been contacted.

Rivkah, at the age of 70, was thinking about her retirement, and the inevitable transition back to democracy. After all, the Galactic Community had just been founded, and the Imperium was ready to be returned...

 

[Nikolai]

Wait, what? No more Imperium? Preposterous.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

Rivkah - now 94, the same as Naomi before her - stood at the podium, ready to announce the result of decades of planning. The building she stood in was one of the oldest buildings on Mars, one of the few that predated the releasing of the atmosphere by vaporising sections of the regolith. Indeed, it was the first non-essential building constructed by Ehyeh Ventures, to be used when this day came.

"This is the year 2274. Around two centuries ago, my ancestor Yehoshua HaMaadimi gave his final address as Imperator at this very spot, before he handed over to Elkhanah Imperator. On that day, he expressed his hope for Humanity, that we would not stop at just the Sol system. That we would reach out and go far beyond Sol, beyond Centauri and Sirius.

This we have done, and more besides. We here today represent hundreds of worlds, with no end in sight as our newest terraforming technologies are able to turn even Luna into a verdant paradise world. We have accomplished the start of his dream. Which leads us to begin the second stage.

Imperator HaMaadimi never wanted the Imperium to be the end. It was a tool for the purpose of ensuring the process of transitioning from early-interplanetary to interstellar civilisation completed, and was intended to be discarded. This purpose has been achieved by us."

She drew the centuries old sabre, took two steps in the light Martian gravity, and drove it into a slot in the floor in front of the Senate. "Imperator HaMaadimi knew not when this sabre would return to this place, but he knew it would. When this concrete was freshly poured, two hundred and thirty years ago, he drove the blade here as a the final resting place for when the work was done. I am Imperatrix Rivkah HaMaadimi, and I declare the mission of the Imperium complete. Vivat Reipublicae Solis!"

 

[CBR JGWRR]

The new Republic of Sol was a much larger logistical arrangement than the Imperium was; after all, the Imperators had always held a loose hand on Planetary Governors, as the same test stood for all; each governor had the talent to lead the Imperium, it was one of the contingencies built into the Imperium by design, and in the event of the death of the HaMaadimi dynasty control reverted to the other Imperators. In principle any Imperator could operate independently, although in practice central control for efficiency's sake was employed; naval administration for example, was handled centrally, as were target export materials Planetary Governors were expected to send.

The Republic however, was intended to be structured very differently, and with much greater complexity. It was an experiment in liberty. Executive, Judicial and Legislative functions of governance were all divided and assigned to different structures in an effort to safeguard controls - after all, the Imperium relied on the assumption of someone like Imperator HaMaadimi leading. The Republic may or may not have that.

The Legislature was assigned to the Priests and accepted by the people, as per the Law of Moses. The Senate handled most of the Executive functions of state, as per the Reipublicae Solis' ancient predecessor. The Judicial functions had a system of primary and appeals courts, juries, settlements for trial by combat, restitution arbiters and prisons. The issue of money was reserved to pure public meetings of the Senate to determine rate of economic growth (or decline, although when the economic growth can be quantified in moons each year, declines become rare) and the issuing of currency to match. Any attempt to impose a central bank was considered high treason, as were the taking out of non-fully costed loans by the Senate; borrowing, except for the purpose of investment that would bring in higher returns than the costs invoked, was banned.

The Priesthood operated the legislative code on the basis of applying the ancient law given to desert-dwelling nomads and applying it to an interstellar civilisation, and therefore there was an extreme level of debate to clarify each point. But equally, with millions of clergy able to do it full time, eventually an exhaustive two hundred volume codification of an expanded Torah was agreed.

The Senate was composed of a multiple tiered system of Council of Imperators, Optimates and Vox Populi. The Council of Imperators was in effect the head of state and was open to all those who passed the Imperator's standard, with two Consuls chosen from among the Imperators by the Optimates and the Vox Populi. The Council of Imperators, by their nature of how they attain the position, possess the vision to see the goal to aim towards and the ability to make goals into reality. Leadership of the army and navy also belonged to Imperators, with the restriction that no Imperator who held military Imperium could come within 30 AU of Sol (that is, sunward of Neptune) in much the same way no general or governor possessing military Imperium of old was allowed to cross the Rubicon with their army in tow.

Based very much on Cicero's idealised definition of the Optimates, the Optimates section of the Senate was for "the responsible, self-controlled, dutiful, loyal, self sacrificing" - or, to use terms more familiar to Stellaris, for Specialists. The Optimates therefore was a forum for debate of experts in their fields as it pertains to the apparatus of state.

Vox Populi, is obviously The Voice of the People, in which all citizens of the Reipublicae Solis may vote for one candidate who represents their constituency and additional candidates based on population sizes.

In short, the executive function of state is decided by the Imperators, subject to the veto of the people if it is applied, with the skilled, the knowledgable and the wise responsible for putting the plans of the Council of Imperators into detailed action.

----

Handling the Logistics of this was the purpose for which Luna would be terraformed under Rivkah's command, in order to be reshaped into a capital Ecumenopolis suitable for hosting the vast apparatus of state required to run the Reipublicae Solis.

 

[Nikolai]

Now, that was unexpected.