Nations of Space

This post is about the nations within the setting the game takes place in.

To begin with there are twelve interstellar nations that control human space: the Reich, the Matrix Coalition, Argona, Neo Babylon, Maya, the Feudal Society, FOSS, the UISSR, the IEJ, the ISS, Untrar, and Splice-Tech.

Argona controls the largest amount of worlds and star systems, all of which are devoted to agricultural production. Argona has no unifying government, no standing military, but almost every human nation purchases a large portion of their food from Argona. That combined with the fact that every single person that considers Argona their nation of origin regularly uses various firearms for both hunting and protection acts as a deterrent against attack. The closest thing to a government that exists is a trading company that organizes the distribution of exports from and imports to Argona.

The Matrix Coalition is the only nation that isn't a human nation, and its formation in 2172 halted a war that had been raging between the Reich and the UISSR. Every citizen of the Matrix Coalition is an Artificial Intelligence of some kind or another. The Matrix Coalition signed nonaggression agreements with every nation that had a standing military at its founding, and despite that every nation is keeping a wary eye on the Matrix Coalition. The governmental body of the Matrix Coalition is structured in the same fashion as a human military is, another fact that makes the human nations nervous.

The Reich is the oldest space faring nation, first establishing a colony in the year 2008 on Luna. Considered to have been born in 1933 in the then Terran nation of Germany when newly appointed Chancellor Adolf Hitler announced his plans to take his country into space. After a brief expansion period focused on uniting neighboring nations that shared a language, Germany's borders closed as Hitler devoted all of his country's brain and manpower into developing a way to leave Terra. Today, the Reich is the most technologically advanced nation in known space. Almost every technological advancement is developed by the Reich, and the ships of the Reich are the most sought after ones on the market.

Neo Babylon was founded in 2089 by a group that sought to bring back the civilization of ancient Babylon. Having since expanded to three star systems, Neo Babylon is considered a small fish in a big pond. Neo Babylon has a very small military, less than two percent of their population, and combined with their aversion to using technology developed by other groups renders them near the bottom in regards to galactic power.

Maya is the smallest nation, following in the footsteps of Neo Babylon. It controls only one star system, has no Orbital Space Stations, and has only three worlds. The government of Maya is a theocratic monarchy based on the religion of ancient Mesoamerica, adapted and updated to interstellar life. Though no evidence exists, many suspect that Maya are behind the vast majority of slaver and raider attacks.

The Feudal Society originated as a Medieval European recreationist group that was founded in Berlin in 1964. By the year 2000, the Society had several thousand members scattered in almost every nation on Terra. When the Soviets developed the Ion Engine in 2004 and the Japanese made building one cheap and affordable in 2007, the Feudal Society (which had members in almost every field imaginable) agreed to found their own nation. In 2008 they gathered and in a fleet of 50 ships made their way to Europa. When the Sol system was made neutral territory, the Feudal Society left Europa and began expanding into space and establishing their own territory.

FOSS, Federation of Orbital Space Stations, is one of the larger nations, and is the only nation lacking a capital world. FOSS controls only two worlds, but more than seventy OSS. Most stations that FOSS have are mining stations in orbit around resource rich worlds. FOSS's military is unique in that their primary military technology is large mobile suits that are piloted. Commonly called 'mecha', these suits may be humanoid in shape or not, though the humanoid ones are often used for more than fighting.

The UISSR, Union of Interstellar Soviet Socialist Republics, is widely considered to be one of the two most powerful nations, alongside the Reich. When Germany placed a man on Luna in 1958 and finally announced to the world their space program, the USSR at the time decided that they would accomplish the same feat within thirty years. Beating that goal by a decade, they quickly established themselves as the Germany's primary rival for space advancement. Today, the UISSR is one of the three wealthiest nations in known space.

The IEJ, Interstellar Empire of Japan, first left Terra in 2009 and established their first extraterrestrial colony on Mars in 2013. Immensely xenophobic and territorial, the IEJ has the fewest allies and the most political enemies. Though the schematics for the melee weapon technology that they developed were kept under lock and key, in 2174 the schematics were stolen and they were close to declaring war on Splice-Tech, the ones they suspected had stolen the schematics, until four other nations stepped in.

The ISS, Interstellar Sovereign States, is descended from the United States and the tattered remnants of the League of Nations. Shortly after expanding to other systems, there was a revolt in their territory and the ISS became embroiled in a civil war that lasted for one hundred seven years before the revolutionaries won and established several states connected by a weak national government, much like the original United States just after the American Revolutionary War.

Splice-Tech is considered by most to be the least human of the nations outside of the Matrix Coalition. Splice-Tech is a technocracy that focuses on the accumulation of knowledge of any kind, though they specialize in cybernetics and genetic alterations. The Splice-Tech soldiers are either genetically altered to the point that they are no longer genetically human or are cybernetically enhanced until they have more machine than organic tissue. For this reason, on a soldier-to-soldier basis, Splice-Tech possesses the strongest military.

The last nation, Untrar, was founded in 2144 in territory that had belonged to a dozen squabbling warlords. Over a five year period, every one of the warlords was assassinated and a new government was put into place. Before any ambassadors or delegates from the other nations could arrive, the borders to Untrar were closed and no information as passed through their borders either way.